Samsung today announced that it has begun offering 2.5" notebook hard drives that integrate perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. The new "M80" series is available in SATA and PATA versions with capacities of 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB.

The devices include free-fall sensors that are located on the hard drive, which promise a faster response time in case a notebook is dropped and a smaller minimum fall detection rate of just 30cm. The free-fall sensors are used to detect changes in acceleration caused by a freefall and "park" the drive’s head and turn the hard drive off to avoid platter damage and data loss. Samsung claims that its new approach provides an operating shock tolerance of 700G.

All other major hard drive manufacturers are offering PMR hard drives as well. Toshiba leads the capacity in the 2.5" segment with a 200 GB model, while Seagate currently sells 750 GB 3.5" desktop drives using PMR technology.

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