Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is today announcing availability of a new 1.8-inch hard drive with up to 80 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity and an unmatched combination of features geared to the needs of consumer handheld devices. The Travelstar C3K80 is Hitachi's second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording hard drive, which is based on the industry-leading reliability established first on Hitachi's 2.5-inch Travelstar 5K160.

With a 30-percent increase in storage capacity, a 20-percent decrease in power consumption and industry-leading shock protection, the Travelstar C3K80 addresses three of the most important requirements for consumer electronics today: ample room for storing music, video and other digital content, longer battery life and unbeatable ruggedness with 600 Gs of operating shock tolerance. The combination of these makes the new 1.8-inch hard drive from Hitachi especially suited for applications such as video-based MP3 players, digital camcorders, portable media players and handheld global positioning devices.

"We believe the Travelstar C3K80 offers the strongest CE-package in a 1.8-inch hard disk drive due to its capacity, power consumption and shock performance," said Marcia Bencala, vice president, corporate strategy/product planning, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "We also have high confidence that the C3K80 will bring greater durability to consumer electronics as a result of the demonstrated reliability of Hitachi's perpendicular recording platform."

The leading low-power consumption of the Travelstar is due in large part to a reduction of the disk spin-speed from 4200 RPM to 3600 RPM, which is one of the key changes to Hitachi's latest generation of 1.8-inch hard drives. The lower RPM on the C3K80 not only allows longer usage time for consumers, but also enables a 40-percent improvement in power-on-to-ready time over Hitachi's previous-generation 1.8-inch product. This means that the drive spins up and is ready to deliver data more quickly, so users will be able enjoy faster access to their music, video, pictures and other content.

The Travelstar C3K80 is now available worldwide.

Travelstar C3K80 Technical Specifications:

80/60/40/30 GB (GB = 1 billion bytes, accessible capacity may be less)
8.0/5.0 mm in height
59/48 grams in weight
3600 RPM
130 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
4/2 recording heads
2/1 platter(s)
600 G (2ms) operating shock
1500 G (1ms) non-operating shock
288 Mb/s max. media transfer rate
14 ms seek time
8.3 ms average latency
33 MB/sec Ultra DMA mode-2
128 KB data buffer
0.35 w active idle
0.08 w low power idle
1.6/1.4 Bels typical idle acoustics