Western Digital announced a new HDD family using 60GB platters a day after the competitor, Seagate, did the same (see this news story). Unfortunately, there is almost no info about the specifications of the new products in the official press-release. All we managed to get from that document is that it is a new caviar family with 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed, built using FDBs (Fluid Dynamic Bearings), the storage capacities available vary from 120GB to 200GB. The first shipments are expected in July.

And that’s it. No details about the actual capacities, average access times, buffer size and noise ratio, no serial numbers or interface supported. Although the last question can be answered, I guess. The 120GB HDDs are most likely to support ATA/100 and SerialATA150 interfaces, and all larger ones – only SerialATA150.

I should say that the capacity of the top model in the family is kind of strange: 200GB. It cannot be divided by 60 (it seems more logical to have 240GB, 210GB, 180GB or 150GB). It appears that a 200GB HDD will use 4 platters and 40GB (which is 2/3 of the platter) will be simply cut off. Strange...