Disk drive company Western Digital launch its new 250GB hard disk for laptops. Dubbed "Scorpio", the new drive features proprietary technology to cut down on heat, noise and power.
To achieve the high capacity, Western Digital (WD) employed perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), the same technology behind Fujitsu's new 300GB notebook drive.
PMR is capable of delivering up to 10 times the storage density than the longitudinal recording method traditionally used on hard drives. Research firm IDC believes that PMR will sustain an average growth rate of 32 per cent in notebook HDD capacities for the next five years. Longitudinal recording on the other hand is thought to have been pushed close to its limits.
The Scorpio may not offer the same capacity as the Fujitsu offering, but it does boast WD's WhisperDrive technology making it 'one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5inh drives available', as well as ShockGuard, which combines firmware and hardware to protect the drive mechanics and platter surface from damage should the laptop be knocked or dropped. And is if that was not enough, IntelliSeek technology is given the job of calculating an optimum seek speed whenever data is read from the drive in order to eliminate hasty movement of the actuator. The actuator's movement is controlled so the head reaches the next target sector just in time to read the next piece of information, rather than rapidly accelerating and waiting for the drive rotation to catch up. This reduces power usage by more than 60 per cent compared with standard drives, as well as reducing noise and vibration, according to WD.
"The 2.5-inch market continues to be a major focus for WD, and this 250GB WD Scorpio drive represents our second-generation PMR platform," said Jim Morris, WD's vice president and general manager of notebook storage. "The WD Scorpio 250 GB hard drive is a direct result of the significant investments WD has made in proprietary head technologies as well as significant system level feature innovation."
UK pricing and availability has yet to be confirmed, but for more information go to westerndigital.com.
