Toshiba's New 100GB 2.5-inch HDD

[bofus?]

from http://www.sdd.toshiba.com/

Initial Release:April 22, 2004

Toshiba's New 100GB 2.5-inch HDD Offers World's Highest Capacity

Perfect For Integration In Portable PCs At Only 9.5mm High

IRVINE, Calif., April 22, 2004 - Toshiba Corporation today confirmed 
its leadership in the fast growing market for 2.5-inch hard-disk 
drives (HDD) with the announcement of the MK1031GAS, the highest 
capacity drive yet achieved in this increasingly important form 
factor. Making full use of Toshiba's latest advances in HDD 
technologies, including the highest areal density yet commercialized, 
the new HDD delivers 100GB of storage capacity and does so in a drive 
only 9.5mm high. MK1031GAS is ideally suited for integration into 
portable PCs, especially those with advanced audio-visual 
capabilities that need the capacity to handle large video sources.

"We are delighted to announce the world's highest capacity 2.5-inch 
HDD," said Amy Dalphy, manager, HDD business unit, Toshiba SDD. "We 
made improvements to push the capacity, increase shock resistance and 
lower power consumption and noise. The resulting drive is perfect for 
integration in high spec portable PCs and other portable devices. Our 
strategy is to create the technologies and products that make a 
reality of ubiquitous computing and we are sure the MK1031GAS makes a 
valuable contribution to that."

Toshiba achieved the world's first 100GB 2.5-inch HDD by establishing 
a new benchmark for areal density: 80-gigabits of data per square 
inch. The key to achieving this was replacing the Pico Sliders 
attached to the drive's heads, and which maintain the appropriate 
distance from the disk during read and write operations, with Femto 
Sliders that are 35 percent smaller and much lighter. Advances were 
also achieved in the thin-film technology for both the head and media.

The new drive's operating shock resistance of 325G (2msec) is 50 
percent higher than in Toshiba's current 2.5-inch HDD*, due to 
employment of the smaller, lighter Femto Sliders in combination with 
a lighter head-suspension and head arm.

Power consumption of the MK1031GAS is approximately 20 percent lower 
on average than the company's current drive* due to pulse width 
modulation (PWM) that controls disk rotation speed by switching the 
power supply to the spindle motor on and off at a controlled 
frequency. A DC-DC converter is also used in the power unit.

The new drive is the latest addition to Toshiba's full line of mobile 
hard disk drives, providing customers with every key capacity point. 
Toshiba's line of drives include 2.5-inch HDDs available in 
15GB/20GB/30GB/40GB/60GB/80GB and 100GB capacities; 1.8-inch HDDs 
available in 10GB/15GB/20GB/30GB and 40GB capacities; and is 
developing 0.85-inch HDDs in 2GB and 4GB capacities. Samples of the 
MK1031GAS will be available in May.

Main Specification

Model name:
MK1031GAS

Capacity:
100GB

Number of platters:
2

Number of heads:
4

Average seek time:
12msec

Data transfer rate:
Ultra DMA/100

Rotational speed:
4,200rpm

Buffer memory:
8MB

Interface:
ATA-6al Dimensions

(WxDxH; mm):
70 x 100 x 9.5

Weight:
99g

Energy consumption efficiency:
0.005W/GB

Shock resistance:
Operating: 3,185m/s2 (325G, 2msec)
Non-operating: 8,330m/s2 (850G, 1msec)

* Comparison based on Toshiba's current 2.5-inch 80GB HDD, MK8025GAS