X-bit labs

Hitachi to Enter 400GB Hard Disk Drive.

Category: Storage

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/10/2004 | 03:03 AM ]

Hitachi Global Storage Technology is about to unveil its new hard disk drive with the world’s largest capacity of 400GB. Though, the deal is not only about the capacity, as the new product will have 7200rpm motor, delivering unprecedented performance for HDDs of this kind.

Deskstar 7K400 hard disk drive from Hitachi will be available for Parallel ATA-33/66/100 and Serial ATA-150 buses, News.com reports. The new models are likely to feature 8MB of cache, similar to other high-performance 3.5” Serial ATA-150 HDDs.

It is yet under wraps which platters are to be used for the new 400GB hard disks from Hitachi, but is absolutely clear that the deal is about leading-edge 80GB or 100GB devices. Presently Seagate Technology also has 100GB platters, but the company’s largest HDD is still 200GB; Maxtor, who makes its Big Drives using 80GB platters, offers 320GB product only featuring 5400rpm motors and delivering relatively low performance.

Hitachi is likely to offer its large 400GB HDD as a solution for digital video recorders and other consumer devices that require a lot of space for storing digital video or audio. However, given high performance and compatibility with Serial ATA and Parallel ATA interfaces, the part will probably be featured in personal computers available later this year.