News

Seagate Ships Notebook Drive with Big Storage

• By Stuart J. Johnston
• January 18, 2006

Seagate Technology says it is shipping the first 2.5-inch notebook PC hard drive built on perpendicular recording technology, producing drives that can contain up to 160GB of storage.

The Momentus 5400.3 is a 5,400 RPM drive that operates with 4,200 RPM power efficiency to extend battery life, according to a statement by the Scotts Valley, Calif. disk drive maker.

In perpendicular recording, rather than lay the magnetic particles end-to-end as has been standard in creating longitudinal recording media for decades, the particles are stood on end, dramatically reducing the amount of space required for each recorded bit. This, according to Seagate, enables the new drives to provide higher recording densities and, thus, more capacity per square inch of disk surface.

Additionally, Seagate says, the particles’ orientation also increases drive performance without increasing spin speed by enabling more bits to pass under the drive head in the same amount of time. Finally, the performance boost is accomplished without increasing power consumption or heat generation, producing more reliable drives in the process.

The Momentus 5400.3 features 132Gbits per square inch. Current units feature an Ultra ATA 100MByte(cq) per second interface, while a model with a 1.5Gbit(cq) per second Serial ATA interface will ship later in the year, Seagate said. Ultimately, the company plans to extend its perpendicular recording technology support to its 7,200 RPM Momentus disk drives as well as to all of its 1- and 3.5-inch products.