… Showa Denko Starts Shipments of 2.5-Inch 500GB HDD Media

Independent HD media supplier Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has started commercial shipments of 2.5-inch hard disk media with storage capacity of 500 gigabytes per disk, using the sixth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The new 2.5-inch HD media have the world’s highest storage capacity for this size available on the market today, according to SDK. SDK has already commercialized 1.89-, 2.5-, and 3.5-inch fifth-generation PMR media.

Demand for high-capacity HD media is growing for such applications as PCs, cloud computing and digital electric appliances. To ensure speedy and stable deliveries of best-quality high-capacity HD media, SDK completed capacity expansion at its site in Singapore in June this year.

As a result, SDK’s total HD media production capacity has been increased to 27 million units a month since July this year. SDK is developing world-leading technologies for HD media with higher capacity.

The fifth- and sixth-generation PMR media: SDK’s HD media based on the PMR technology are classified as shown in the table below according to respective storage capacities.
(Unit: gigabytes per disk; as of August 3, 2011)

Generation    1.89-inch    2.5-inch        3.5-inch
1                     40                   80             160
2                     60                 120             250
3                     80                 160             334
4                    120                250             500
5                    160                334             750
6                    250                500