Toshiba Unveils 240 GB Hard Drive For Ultra-Mobile PCs

Toshiba on Tuesday introduced a 240 GB hard disk drive for ultra-mobile PCs and a 120 GB HDD for portable media players.

Both devices are 1.8-inch HDDs with a speed of 4,200 revolutions per minute. Hitachi also makes an 80 GB model. All the drives have parallel ATA interfaces and an areal density of 344 GB per square inch. The larger device has a maximum weight of 2 ounces and the smaller HDD 1.7 ounces.

The largest of the drives is a dual-platter product that's especially suited for ultra-mobile PCs and high-end digital video recorders, Toshiba said. Ultra-mobile PCs, sometimes netbooks, are typically sub-$500 notebook PCs with display sizes of 10 inches or less. The term also can apply to some tablet PCs.

The single-platter 120 GB model is made for portable media players and other slim-line mobile gadgets.

In general, "1.8-inch HDDs have become an ideal form factor for the digital world, where the ability to handle rich digital content in a mobile environment is king," Maciek Brzeski, VP of marketing at Toshiba's Storage Device Division, said in a statement.

The 240 GB drive offers overall improvement in energy consumption over Toshiba's previous generation 160 GB model, which was slower at 3,600 RPMs, the company said. Both new models use 20% less power than previous versions during read and write operations.

Toshiba expects its latest drives to be incorporated in consumer electronics and mobile PC products shipping this holiday season. In a nod to protecting the environment, Toshiba says it has discontinued the use of certain environmentally harmful chemical substances across all components incorporated in its line of 1.8-inch drives.