Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has introduced the world's first and only 7mm 2.5" hard disk drive (HDD) with 7200rpm spindle speed and 500GB capacity. The single-platter storage device is aimed at ultra-thin notebooks that require high-performance amid low power consumption, compact sizes and relatively low price, such as Intel-based ultrabooks.

“Slim, compact, light-weight - no matter how you phrase it, there’s no denying that thin is in, and this trend is driving broad market acceptance for our 7200rpm and 5400rpm 7mm 2.5" drives,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at Hitachi GST.

The new Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 family of hard drives will offer 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities on a single platter with 630Gb/inch² areal density. The new 7mm drives boast with 7200rpm spindle speed, 32MB buffer, Serial ATA 6Gb/s interface and 1369Mb/s (171MB/s) media transfer rate. The drives are optimized for notebooks as well as other low-power consumer electronics products and thus consume only 1.8W in average, 2.1W in seek mode, 0.8W in idle mode and 0.2W in standby modes.

Optional Travelstar Z7K500 drive models are available, including a self encrypting drive (SED) designed to meet the highest standards for protecting data, and an enhanced-availability (EA) model for applications needing around-the-clock data access in lower-transaction environments.

Since thin-and-light laptops as well as ultrabooks have all chances to become popular this year, numerous PC makers are more than likely to adopt them for their forthcoming systems.

“We are proud to report that all major PC OEMs have qualified our previous generation 7mm drives for a variety notebooks, ultrabooks and CE devices, confirming that the industry continues to recognize the value and benefits of this new form-factor. By adding the first 500GB, high-performance 7mm drive to our portfolio, Hitachi GST now offers the market’s broadest 7mm 2.5" hard drive portfolio to meet the needs of a diverse mobile computing and storage segment,” added Mr. Collins.

Qualification samples of the Travelstar Z7K500 family have been shipping since January; volume shipments will begin in March.

“We’re witnessing a change in the industry in terms of how laptops are designed. From manufacturing, performance, efficiency, weight, aesthetics and features, we’re bringing compelling advantages to the end user. Equipping our laptops and Ultrabooks with Hitachi Z-series drives allows us to offer new designs, while ensuring that we have the quality and reliability that our customers expect,” said Wentao Yang, vice president of global procurement at  Lenovo.

Tags: Hitachi, HDD, Travelstar, 7mm