Toshiba's Reveals New 2.5" 7,200 RPM SED

Toshiba revealed a new 2.5-inch Self-Encrypting Disk.

Tuesday Toshiba's Storage Device Division announced its new 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch Self-Encrypting Drive (SED), the MKxx61GSYD (pdf).

The MKxx61GSYD is the latest addition to Toshiba's family of drives designed for commercial notebooks and security-sensitive applications, including shared desktop PCs. Its biggest feature is the government-grade AES-256 bit hardware encryption, incorporated right into the controller electronics. According to the company, the built-in hardware encryption offers benefits that "go beyond software encryption."

"Based on the Opal Security Subsystem Class (Opal SSC) specification from the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), the new Toshiba SED enables secure and quick deployment of encryption on notebook and desktop PCs to protect confidential information," the company said.

As for specifications, the new MKxx61GSYD offers 160 GB, 250 GB and 320 GB capacities using a single platter, and 500 GB and 640 GB using two. In addition to the 7,200 RPM rotational speed, the disk also features an average seek time of 12 ms, a buffer memory of 16 MB, and a SATA 3 Gb/s interface.

Toshiba said that samples of the MKxx61GSYD are now shipping, however the disk expected to go full retail in Q1 2011. Toshiba did not provide pricing for the five capacities.