Hitachi Rolls Out Perpendicular Hard DriveHitachi Rolls Out Perpendicular Hard Drive

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has entered the hard drive perpendicular recording arena with a 2.5-inch 160 GB Travelstar device that emphasizes shock-resistance and reliability.

Announced Monday, the Travelstar 5K160 has 5400 RPMs and is aimed at the notebook and mobile computing markets.

"The 5K160 2.5-inch hard disk drive is a good example of how the hard disk drive industry continues to make excellent progress in improving not only the capacity of 2.5-inch drives for notebooks, but also the basic reliability and robustness," said Mr. Takagi, director, IT Products Division at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., in a statement.

Perpendicular drives are being developed by other manufacturers including Seagate, but Hitachi said its approach works to increase density while keeping errors low.

The firm pointed to its new read-head technology development, which features an alloy combination of iridium, manganese, and chromium (IrMnCr). The technology also entails a dusting of ruthenium and the use of a very hot ultra-high magnetic field oven.