Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced a new, redesigned 1.8”hard disk drive that is tailored to consumer electronics device manufacturers’ needs – easy integration and less space consumption. Makers of CE are likely to praise Hitachi’s move, as currently the choice of tiny HDDs is not that large for them.

The Travelstar C4K60 series for consumer electronics operates at 4200rpm and is available in 20GB and 30GB capacities – the most popular capacity points for the MP3 segment, where 1.8” drives are most prevalent. Specifications of the drive are as follows:

• 7.0 mm in height;
• 99.8Gbit  per square inch maximum areal density;
• 1 glass disk platter;
• 2 GMR recording heads;
• 1200G/1ms non-operating shock;
• 500G/2ms operating shock;
• 7.1ms average latency;
• 15ms average seek time;
• ATA-6 100MB/s maximum interface transfer rate;
• 46 weight in grams;
• 1.6Bels typical idle acoustics;
• 2.2 Bels typical operating acoustics;

Hitachi has replaced the standard notebook-based connector on its new Travelstar C4K60 series with a ZIF connector, widely implemented in CE devices today. With the ZIF connector, Hitachi has reduced the footprint of its new drive by 10 percent and enabled easier integration through a common connector, which the CE industry has been using successfully for many years.

For device manufacturers, the ZIF connector on Hitachi's new drive provides size- and ease-of-integration benefits, but it may also result in lower design and integration costs and greater reliability. Additionally, the ZIF connector, which allows the drive to talk to the host device through a flex cable, gives manufacturers greater flexibility in mounting schemes. For example, manufacturers could mount the Travelstar 1.8-inch drive in a floating scheme and implement dampening or insulative materials around the drive for even better shock protection. The ZIF connector also makes for more reliable devices through its reduced pin-count - 40 compared to the 50 on the notebook-based connectors.

Hitachi said the new HDD is available now.