Toshiba Speeds Up 1.8-Inch HDDs

Toshiba's looking to fuel the high-performance mobile PC market with 80 and 160 GB 1.8-inch hard disks that run at 5,400 RPM.

Pundits keep saying the era of the mobile Internet device (MID) is just around the corner, and Toshiba’s Storage Device Division is trying to make that vision a reailty with new high-capacity, high-speed 1.8-inch hard drives. The new MKxx17GSG series come in single- (80 GB) and dual-platter (160 GB) models, and offer an SATA interface on a micro-SATA connector and 5,400 RPM speeds.

“At these capacities, our 1.8-inch HDDs are enabling the miniaturization of mobile PCs by providing better power consumption efficiency and improved ruggedness over larger form factors,” said Toshiba Storage’s VP of marketing Maciek Brzeski, in a statement. “We continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDD growth and adoption in the mobile PC arena, particularly in thin-and-light, sub-notebook, tablet PC, and extreme mobility devices.”

The new drives can push data to a host device at 1.5Gb/s, offer 8 MB of onboard cache, and offer an average seek time of 15 ms. In keeping with their mobile intentions, the drives are also easy on batteries and can handle operating shocks up to 500 Gs in 2 ms.

The new 5,400 RPM drives should reach device manufacturers in August, and hit consumer electronics (and even computing devices) shortly thereafter.