Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) began shipment of its fourth-generation 7,200 RPM mobile hard drive, the Travelstar 7K320. The new drive delivers 60 percent higher capacity than its predecessor, while improving application performance by 12 percent and power consumption by 22 percent. The drive’s quiet acoustics improve the experience of watching movies or listening to music on a notebook PC. The 2.5-inch drive is offered with optional Bulk Data Encryption for users wanting increased data security. Hitachi also plans to ship enhanced-availability (EA) models, designed to provide high-capacity storage for low-duty-cycle, 24x7 applications.

The performance attributes of the Travelstar 7K320 allow consumers to opt for a full-featured notebook or compact desktop model, while still achieving all the capacity and performance typically associated with a more traditional desktop PC. The new drives bring forth a number of essential features that are in strong demand from manufacturers of notebooks, compact desktops, gaming systems, blade servers and video surveillance systems. Some of these attributes include best-in-class operating shock protection of 400Gs, 5,400 RPM-equivalent power consumption and quiet acoustics.

“As operating systems have grown more complex, users have struggled with an overall decrease in system performance,” said Larry Swezey, director, Consumer and Commercial HDD, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “Solid state drives (SSD) have yet to deliver an overall increase in speed, and certainly not at an affordable price. The 7,200 RPM speed of the Travelstar 7K320 provides an improved overall experience, at the capacities users want and at a far lower cost than SSD.”

Gartner is predicting worldwide mobile PC shipments will surpass global desk-based PC shipments in the second half of 20091. This evolution has been driven by the ever improving performance-for-price of mobile PCs, relative to desktop PCs. Hitachi believes the greater availability of 7,200 RPM hard drives will help accelerate this trend, as more users realize the benefits of combining desktop-class performance with the convenience and portability of a notebook.

Features

• 320GB capacity for storing approximately 80 hours of high definition video, 320 hours of standard video, 100 movies, 80,000 4-minute MP3s or 160 games2
• he 7,200 RPM provides any operating system with a noticeable advantage in boot times and application performance. A SATA 3Gb/s interface and fast media transfer rates provide faster file copying and document retrieval, better graphics and improved game performance
• Best-in-class operating shock protection of 400Gs to minimize the effects of rough handling and vibration
• Power utilization on par with Hitachi’s 5,400 RPM mobile drives, so that users can enjoy more “unplugged” notebook computing time
• The drive’s quiet acoustics provide a richer audio listening experience for music, movies and games

The Travelstar 7K320 features optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE), a capability that Hitachi has offered in its mobile hard drives since the start of 2007. Previously, data on a hard drive could be protected either through software-based encryption or a system-level password. Hard drive level encryption provides improved performance and a higher level of security than any of the previously available methods.

When employing bulk data encryption, data is scrambled using a key as it is being written to the disk and then descrambled with the key as it is retrieved. Thus, data encryption at the hard-drive level represents a more sophisticated approach of securing users’ data and is generally considered to be virtually impenetrable. Another benefit is that it speeds and simplifies the drive re-deployment process. By deleting the encryption key, the data on the drive is rendered unreadable, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming data-overwrite.
BDE models ship exclusively with a SATA 1.5Gb/s interface.

Technical Specifications of the Travelstar 7K320:

• 320/250/160/120/80GB
• 9.5mm in height
• 7,200 RPM
• 252 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
• 2/2/1/1/1 glass disks
• 4/4/2/2/1 TMR recording head(s)
• 1000G/1ms non-operating shock
• 400G/2ms operating shock
• 4.2ms average latency
• 12ms average read time
• 1.0W active idle
• 0.8W low-power idle
• Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s encrypted
• 115/110 grams in weight
• 2.5Bels typical idle acoustics
• 2.8Bels typical operational acoustics

Availability
The Travelstar 7K320 is now shipping to customers worldwide. The enhanced-availability version of the drive is expected to ship in the third quarter of 2008.