WW Record by Samsung: 320GB on One Side of 3.5-Inch Platter

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is now shipping the Spinpoint F4, the newest model of its Spinpoint F series drives. It is engineered for high-end computing in PCs, Macs, high-end workstations and server applications.

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"Higher performance combined with increasing capacities continues to accelerate demand for 3.5” drives in desktops storage,” said In-Chul Park, vice president of sales, storage systems division, Samsung Electronics. “The one-head platform of the new 7200rpm Spinpoint F4, packing up to 320GB of storage capacity per one head in half platter, delivers added reliability that our customers have come to expect from Samsung.”

With a one-head platform design and fewer mechanical parts, the reliability and acoustic features of the Spinpoint F4 have been improved. The drive delivers 10% increased read/write performance and 7% lower power consumption than the Spinpoint F1.

Eliminating halogen compound and brominated flame retardant from the PCBA, the new Spinpoint F4 is produced with eco-friendly materials and meets all the environmental regulations including RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances).

The Spinpoint F4 features 7200rpm speed rotation, advanced areal density technology and a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface. Equipped with Samsung’s exclusive dynamic balancing technology, the drive’s overall stability and reliability is optimized as a high performing solution. Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies are incorporated in the drive to offer ultra quiet operation.

The Spinpoint F4 drive has an 8MB/16MB buffer memory and is available in 320GB capacities worldwide.

The Spinpoint F4 is available to key OEMs now.

Comments

Today's maximum capacity into a 3.5-inch HDD is 2TB using four platters. It means 500GB per disk or 250GB on one side. With 320GB on half platter, Samsung is reaching a worldwide record areal density on 3.5-inch rigid magnetic media.

The Spinpoint F4 is packed in a regular 3.5-inch form factor, 26.1mm high. There is a lot of empty space in the unit as it's possible to put four disks and eight heads (Seagate, WD) and even five disks and ten heads (Hitachi GST) in this form factor. It's strange that Samsung did not make any effort to reduce the height of its unit.

The manufacturer didn't reveal any price but it could the lowest one for a 3.5-inch HDD as it incorporates only one disk and one head, a new idea in the industry.

With 320GB on one side or 640GB per disk, Samsung demonstrates that it's now possible to reach 2.56TB with four platters in a 3.5-inch device. And even more. According to sources, Seagate and WD are ready to reach 3TB - 750GB per disk - but they prefer to delay an announcement because there are some problems with Windows to manage such a capacity.