WD 2TB HDD To Be Announced Very Soon

According to a Western Digital’s inside source that we cannot cited, the company could announce its new 2TB 3.5-inch HDD, a world record capacity, on January 5, 2009. And when WD launches a new unit, it generally means that it is already in production.

Probably named CaviarGreen WD20EADS, this unit will have four platters rotating at 7,200rpm with SATA-II, and will surpass the Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11 unit already available since last August. Some OEMs have already looked at the WD device under NDA. Even distributor Czech Computer already offers it at 5,943,-Kc excluding VAT (US$316).

You can bet that HGST, Samsung, Seagate will follow WD next year with the same capacity.

MILESTONES IN THE HARD DISK DRIVE INDUSTRY

First HDD at capacity equal to or more than	Company	Model	Year*	Capacity
4MB	IBM	350 Ramac	1956	4.4MB
10MB	IBM	1301	1962	21.6MB
100MB	IBM	2302-3	1965	112MB
500MB	STC	8800 Super Disk	1975	880MB
1GB	IBM	3380	1981	1.260GB
100GB	Seagate	Barracuda 180	2001	181.6GB
500GB	HGST	7K500	2005	500GB
1TB	HGST	7K1000	2007	1TB
1.5TB	Seagate	Barracuda 7200.11	2008	1.5TB
2TB**	WD	WD20EADS	2009	2TB

* Year of actual first shipment, not date of announcement
** To be confirmed
(Sources: Disk/Trend and StorageNewsletter)