Seagate's Big Dense Hard Drive

Seagate just broke a new barrier in hard disc drive technology by putting 80 GBytes on just two platters, which they accomplished by getting a density of 32.6 Gbits per square inch. The company's new U Series offers transfer rates of up to 54.5 MBytes per second, an 8.9-msec seek time, a 2 MByte cache, and an Ultra ATA/100 interface for external burst transfer rates up to 100 MBytes per second. Seagate says it is targeting its new U Series at consumer electronics (CE) companies who have a need for quieter hard drives. The U Series uses fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motors to whisper along at 27 decibels while spinning at 5,400 rpms.