Hitachi Rolls Out 160 GB Perpendicular Technology Hard Drive

hard drive perpendicular recording GB

Announced Monday, the Travelstar 5K160 has 5400 RPMs and is aimed at the notebook and mobile computing markets.

"The 5K160 2.5-inch hard disk drive is a good example of how the hard disk drive industry continues to make excellent progress in improving not only the capacity of 2.5-inch drives for notebooks, but also the basic reliability and robustness," said Mr. Takagi, director, IT Products Division at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., in a statement.

Perpendicular drives are being developed by other manufacturers including Seagate, but Hitachi said its approach works to increase density while keeping errors low.

The firm pointed to its new read-head technology development, which features an alloy combination of iridium, manganese, and chromium (IrMnCr). The technology also entails a dusting of ruthenium and the use of a very hot ultra-high magnetic field oven.