Fujitsu MHR Series 2.5" Mobile Hard Drives

Mini hard drives for laptops always lag behind their desktop and server big brothers in both speed and size, but they are getting bigger and they are getting faster. They're just considerably more expensive. Fujitsu's new MHR series 2.5" mobile hard drives are said to include new technologies for both the head and the media. These new advances in drive technology should enable hard disk drives to eventually achieve recording densities up to 300 Gigabits per square inch. The new MHR Series supports the Ultra ATA/100 interface and, with 20GB per platter, offers capacities of 10, 20, 30, and 40GB. Using Fujitsu's head load/unload and "Silent HDD" technologies, the mobile drives offer a 32.5MB/s (max) transfer rate and track to track seek time of 1.5ms. The drives weigh 99g, spin at 4,200 RPM, have a 2MB buffer, and for you clumsy folks, offer 900G of non-operating shock tolerance. Fujitsu's "Silent HDD" technology is based on the use of Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) motors. In addition, as part of Fujitsu's attempts at being environmentally conscious, the MHR Series is produced using lead-free solder. As for the drive's increased density, Fujitsu's Synthetic Ferrimagnetic media (SFM) uses alternating layers of magnetic and nonmagnetic materials that result in improved thermal stability and provides an increase of up to three times the recording density that was possible with other types of media. The MHR series is currently in being evaluated by OEMs and volume shipments will gear up in early Q1 2002.