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SEAGATE AND HITACHI INTRODUCE 2.5-IN. DISK DRIVES
On June 10, Seagate Technology of Scotts Valley, Calif.
and Hitachi America, Ltd.’s Computer Division in Brisbane, Calif.
both debuted 2.5-in. disk drives. Both are aiming to garner a large
share of the growth 2.5-in. drive market. Disk/Trend Inc. of Mountain
View, Calif. puts the market at 10.6 million units in 1995 growing 18%
in 1996 to 12.5 million units.
Seagate’s new Marathon 810sl (ST9810A/AG) provides 811 Mbytes
of storage in a 2.5-in., slim-line package, with a 12.7 mm vertical
height. International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. cites the capacity
range between 540 Mbytes and 1 Gbyte as the most popular storage capacity
for mobile computers in 1996.
By contrast, Hitachi went for the highest capacity possible with current
technology in two popular 2.5-in. form factors. The new drives extend
the storage capacity of Hitachi’s 19-mm high series to 1.8 Gbytes
and raise capacity of the company’s 12.7-mm series to 1.08 Gbytes.
The DK213A-18 provides 1.8 Gbytes capacity in a five-disk package weighing
just 210 grams. The DK223A-11 provides 1.08 Gbytes of storage capacity
on three disks, at a weight of just 150 grams. Both drives use the ATA-2
interface and support a host data transfer rate of 16.6 Mbytes/second.
With disk spin rates of 4,464 RPM, the drives have an average seek time
of 12 ms. By contrast, the Seagate drive turns at 4,000-rpm spindle
speed and offers a slightly slower 14-ms average seek time.
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