Seagate Ships World's First 160GB Notebook PC Hard Drives with Perpendicular Recording Technology

January 18, 2006

Seagate Technology has begun shipping the industry's first 2.5-inch notebook PC disc drive built on perpendicular recording technology to the worldwide distribution channel. Delivering up to 160GB of capacity, the most available in a 2.5-inch disc drive, the Momentus family continues to close the capacity and performance gap between desktop and notebook PC hard drives.

Momentus 5400.3, a 5,400-rpm drive that operates with 4,200-rpm power efficiency to extend battery life, is Seagate's first to bring the higher capacities and performance of perpendicular recording to mainstream notebook PCs. Momentus 5400.3 delivers 132 Gbits per square inch. Seagate will also extend the advantages of perpendicular recording to its 7,200-rpm Momentus disc drives and to all of its 1- and 3.5-inch products.

"The trend is clear: the number of notebook PC users is growing, and they demand higher capacity disk drives," said John Rydning, IDC's research manager for hard disk drives. "IDC estimates that Notebook PCs with 80GB or more of disk drive capacity will grow from less than 10% of notebook shipments in 2004 to nearly 50% in 2006, providing opportunities for high-capacity mobile drives such as Seagate's new Momentus 5400.3."

Perpendicular recording stands data bits on end on the disc, rather than flat to the surface as with existing longitudinal recording, to deliver new levels of hard drive data density and capacity. The new data orientation also increases drive performance without increasing spin speed by allowing more bits to pass under the drive head in the same amount of time. The perpendicular recording performance boost comes without increases in power consumption or heat generation - crucial as remote users look to work longer between battery charges and system builders seek to pack more performance in smaller notebooks. Perpendicular recording also improves drive reliability by enhancing data resistance to thermal decay.

The Momentus 5400.3 hard drive now shipping to the channel features the Ultra ATA 100 Mbyte/second interface. Seagate will begin shipping Momentus 5400.3 with the 1.5 Gbit/second Serial ATA interface later this year.

The Momentus family is built tough to withstand up to an industry-leading 350 Gs of operating shock and 900 Gs of non-operating shock to protect drive data, making the drives ideal for printers, copiers, non-mission critical blade servers, external storage arrays and other non-PC environments where systems are jarred or subject to a rugged operating environment. The hard drives are also lean on power, allowing notebook users to work longer between battery charges, and are virtually inaudible thanks to Seagate's innovative SoftSonic fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep ramp load technology.

Source: Seagate