Toshiba Corp. on Tuesday announced a new lineup of hard disk drives (HDDs) for mobile or portable applications that offer either increased capacities or leading performance. One of the hard drives, in fact, has set the record in 2.5” HDD capacity with 320GB of storage space.

The new members of two product families – MK-GSX and MK-GSY – boast with either recently launched 160GB platters, providing maximum storage capacity, or 7200rpm motor with 16MB buffer, giving customers additional performance. Both models support an optional Free Fall Sensor function, which detects falling HDD and parks the head before it crashes. The new drives in 2.5” form-factor may be used in both mobile computers as well as various consumer electronics applications that require relatively small footprint amid capacious storage or high performance.

The flagship Toshiba MK3252GSX model has two 160GB platters that feature total capacity of rather unprecedented 320GB. The new hard drive features Serial ATA-300 interface, 5400rpm motor, 8MB buffer and 12ms average seek time. Other members of Toshiba MK-GSX family sport similar technical characteristics, but feature capacities of 250GB, 160GB, 120GB or 80GB.

The top-of-the-range member of Toshiba MK-GSY family – MK2049GSY – uses two 100GB platters and has capacity of 200GB. The two main advantages of the HDD are 7200rpm motor as well as 16MB buffer, which may provide additional performance and responsiveness. Toshiba declares that the new drive increases the maximum transfer rate by approximately 46% and the average random access time by approximately 8% when compared to current MK1637GSX model. Other new members of the family feature capacities of 160GB, 120GB or 80GB.

Toshiba will feature the new drives at the IFA 2007, one of the worlds’s largest consumer electronics trade fairs, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, from August 31 to September 5. The drives will also feature at DiskCon USA 2007, organized by The International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA), which will be held in Santa Clara, California, from September 19 to 20.

Toshiba Corp. did not reveal when the new HDDs are planned to be commercially available.