Seagate claims largest laptop hard drive
160GB thanks to perpendicular data recording.
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service | Published: 10:10, 16 January 2006
Seagate has produced a 160GB laptop drive - the highest capacity 2.5in drive on the market.
The Momentus 5400.3 drive is Seagate's first laptop drive to use perpendicular data recording - a technique fast being adopted by other disk makers. By the end of this year, it hopes to have all of its products will using the technology.
The drive, as its name suggests, runs at 5,400 rpm and is designed specifically for laptops. The version shipping now has an Ultra ATA/100 interface and a second version with a faster Serial ATA interface will be available later this year, said Seagate. No price was given for either drive.
Perpendicular data recording involves standing the magnetic fields that represent data bits upright. In most current drives these fields lay flat on the disk surface. Standing them upright means they take less space, enabling more to be packed on the disk and the storage capacity to be increased.
