Innovative Computer Peripheral Products

March 11, 2002
By Benjamin B. Ames, Senior Editor, Design News

http://www.manufacturing.net/dn/index.asp?layout=articleWebzine&articleId=CA198785

How to fit 20 Gbytes in your hand

Toshiba's newest 1.8-inch embedded hard-disk drives (HDDs) are available in 10- and 20-Gbyte capacities. These mini-drives are designed to provide storage for mobile and handheld products, such as music players, handheld PCs, PDAs, digital video cameras, and car navigation systems. The 20-Gbyte version is also used in Toshiba's "ultraportable" 2.6-lb, 0.6-inch thin Portégé 2000 notebook PC. At just 54 × 78.5 mm, the new drives weigh 51 grams (62 grams for the 20-Gbyte version). And both the 10- (MK1003GAL) and 20-Gbyte version (MK2003GAH) have data-transfer rates of 100 Mbytes/sec. The drives can withstand operational shock up to 200g and non-operating shock to 1,000g. "We tend to introduce our new capacity drives at 2.5 inches and port them over to 1.8 inches," says Tom Jones, VP of engineering. "The biggest challenge in doing that is miniaturization of the semiconductors." To manage the extra heat generated in the shrunken footprint, Toshiba runs the 1.8-inch drives on just 3.3V, compared to 5V for the 2.5-inch drives.