Sept. 15, 2009
Toshiba announced on  September 9 that it would be releasing a new line of 1.8-inch single platter hard disk drives with capacities up to 160GB. These new products are being targeted towards next-generation portable media players and digital video camcorders.
The new drives, under the unwieldy MKxx34GAL line moniker, offer a thin and light package with the highest single platter storage capacity in the industry, the quietest seek function, and the most efficient power consumption. It appears they will only be available to manufacturers with the 160GB model shipping now and the 60GB, 80GB and 120GB models following later in the month.
“1.8-inch HDDs are key components in a variety of handheld and mobile products that require the combination of high-capacity, durability, cost-effectiveness and reliability in a small and compact footprint,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division.
“With the increasing demand for anytime content access and capture, we continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDDs in portable devices. Our 1.8-inch products have fueled innovation in a variety of markets, and have been installed in many products that are today, common household items.”
Maybe we’ll see one of these in the next iPod refresh?
Ryan Cloutier is a Blast correspondentProduct Specifications
Model Number            MXX34GAL
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Maximum Capacity     160GB / 120GB // 80GB / 60GB
(Formatted) 1
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Number of platters           1
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Areal density           467 Gb/in(2)
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Average seek time          15 ms
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Rotational speed          4,200 RPM
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Buffer memory             8 MB
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Interface            Parallel ATA
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Interface transfer        100 MB/sec rate
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External         54.0 mm x  71.0 mm x 5.0 mm dimensions (WxDxH; mm)
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Weight (g) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 48 g (max)
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Energy consumption  0.0019 / 0.0025 // 0.0038 / 0.0050 W/GB efficiency
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Shock resistance:
Operating          5,880 m/s(2) (600 G, 2ms)
Non-operating       14,700 m/s(2) (1,500 G, 1ms)
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Acoustics:
Idle                14 dB
Seek                15 dB
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