Hitachi strikes new direction with Lightning
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8 Sep 2004, 18:44 GMT - Hitachi this week laid a unique bet on storage virtualization with the launch of the latest version of its flagship Lightning disk array.
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Hitachi has developed a 500GB hard-disk drive for laptop computers, due to be announced Thursday. The Travelstar 5K500, which is the highest capacity drive yet developed for portable PCs, is due to begin shipping in February and should go some way towards quenching user thirst for storage space.Hitachi has managed to increase the capacity of its 2.5-inch drive by adding a third disc platter and by cramming data together more closely on those platters.The extra platter means the drive is physically larger than previous models: 12.5 millimeters thick versus 9.5mm for most current 2.5-inch drives. That means it won&#39;t fit in the drive space in many laptop computers, but Hitachi is confident that PC makers will redesign their machines to accommodate the drive because storage is a key selling point right now.&quot;The hunger from end-users for more capacity has been phenomenal,&quot; said Larry Swezey, director of marketing and strategy at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Hitachi&#39;s hard-disk drive subsidiary. He said the new drive is targeted at the type of consumer laptops that typically comes with a large screen and high-end audio and graphics.One PC maker has already fallen for the drive. Taiwan&#39;s&#160;Asus is due to announce Thursday its new M50 and M70 laptops&#160;that will use the drive. The latter machine will contain two of the drives to offer 1TB of storage space.With an eye on this target market Hitachi has made some modifications to the drive to improve performance, Swezey said. There are new vibration sensors that help the drive&#39;s read/write head keep on track. These are required because high-end entertainment laptops have increasingly sophisticated sound systems and larger speakers than can cause vibrations in the drive when music is being played loud. These vibrations can lead to read/write errors and a drop in performance.The 5,400-rpm drive offers a 5.5-millisecond average latency and 12-millisecond average read time. It comes with a SATA (Serial ATA) interface that supports 3Gbps&#160;data transfer although this drops to 1.5Gbps when the optical disc encryption is turned on. The drive consumers 0.95 watts at idle and 0.7 watts at low-power idle, which is only slightly more than Hitachi&#39;s previous two platter laptop drives, Swezey said.In addition to the 500GB drive, Hitachi will also offer a 400GB drive and &quot;enhanced availability&quot; versions of both drives designed for 24/7 use in products such as digital video recorders. The basic versions will be available in February and the enhanced versions about a month later. The basic 500GB model will cost about $399 and the 400GB drive will have a $349 price tag, Hitachi said.
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Hitachi, Canon and Panasonic have agreed to a wide-ranging collaboration that will see the three companies shar...
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New component contains the blue and red lasers required for support of the two disc formats as well as the associated lenses and optical receivers. Commercial production possible by end of next year.
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Hitachi Ltd., a Japanese electronics company, reported Friday that its group net profit surged nearly eight-fold for the first fiscal half as sales grew on solid global demand for digital home products.
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CHIBA, JAPAN -- Sanyo Electric unveiled a prototype player supporting the next-generation optical disc format HD-DVD at the Ceatec 2004 show here this week.
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But don't laugh - it could boost hard disk capacities ten-fold Fujitsu has demonstrated what it claims is the world's first optical device capable of producing a beam less than 100nm across.â¦
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Multiplying tentacles Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) continued its drive to broaden its reach by announcing a suite of new software for mid-sized storage operations - small fry compared to its traditional base in big enterprise.â¦
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Hitachi is considering a shake-up of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the hard-disk drive maker that it acquired from IBM in 2003.
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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies plans to at least double the capacity of its 1-inch Microdrive hard disk drive this year.
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Hitachi is considering a shake-up of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), the hard-disk drive maker that it acquired from IBM in 2003.
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One of Japan's biggest consumer-technology showcases, the Ceatec trade show presents a wide range of new and developing products.
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Pumps up BlueArc for high performance computing push Hitachi Data Systems has bought a stake in network-attached storage specialist BlueArc. The pair will flog each other's kit worldwide in a bid to snatch leadership from NetApp in the $1bn high performance computing storage market.â¦
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International Business Machines Corp. countered Hitachi Ltd.'s September announcement by unveiling its own high-end storage server it claims puts it in the lead in that market.
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A partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy raises some interesting scenarios.
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Hitachi increased the capacity of its Travelstar notebook harddrives. The consumer-targeted 5K100 and E5K100 for enterprise applications offer up to 100 GByte
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Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.   and Hitachi Ltd.  are joining forces to battle  fierce competition in the flat screen industry by adding each  others' plasma display panels to their product line-up.