Hitachi to launch smaller drives with more capacity

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies will christen a smaller one-inch Microdrive product and a slimmer 1.8-inch hard drive later this year. These two miniature drives are designed to meet the accelerating demand for ultra-portable handheld devices – such as mobile phones and digital music players – that don’t compromise on storage capacity.

Hitachi will deliver on these requirements by re-engineering its world-renowned one-inch Microdrive to create a 20-percent smaller version with the highest capacity at 8-10 gigabytes (GB) of storage. The new smaller Microdrive is affectionately called baby "Mikey" for its diminutive size.

Applying a similar approach to a new 1.8-inch Travelstar product, Hitachi will trim 30 percent off the thickness of the drive to create a 5 mm version, nicknamed"Slim." With a slighter profile equivalent to that of the Microdrive, "Slim" will be the world’s smallest and lightest 1.8-inch drive, beating the closest competitor by 10 percent in total volume.

The new babies in the Hitachi family represent a novel approach to the hard drive industry’s continuing quest for high capacity in smaller and smaller form factors. Hitachi is retaining the one-inch and 1.8-inch disk size for maximum capacity, but trimming the package footprint for greater agility. "Mikey" is expected to make his debut in the second half of 2005 at a mere 14 grams and in an embedded-only design. "Slim" will also make his entrance in the latter half of the year with 30-40 GB of capacity on the one-disk version.

Additional info about these drives can be found over at Hitachi