One of which is the company's first 1" drive. 5GB! How's that for a capacity/space ratio?

Seagate Japan announced 13 new HD products, including the company's first 1 inch HD, o­n the 9th. They plan o­n beginning shipments in the 3rd quarter.

-1" 5GB, 2.5" 100GB for consumers

Since the 1" HD is intended to be used in electronics devices, both a Type2 CF(Microdrive) and manufacture-level type will be offered. There will be two capacities - both a 2.5BG version and the world's largest capacity for a 1 inch drive, 5GB. The rotation speed is 3,600 rpm. They also feature "RunOn Technology" to prevent skipping while jogging and such.

The "DB35" series is a 3.5" HD series available in 250, 300, and 400GB capacities. The multistreaming capability has been improved, and they now also feature a content security option, aimed at video recorder products.

About the multistreaming capability, the company has said that it can play/record up to 10 HD streams at the same time. The rotation speed is 7,200 rpms, and the interface is Ultra ATA/1000.

The new 3.5" "Barracuda" and 2.5" "Momentus" drives intended for use inside of a PC have been introduced.

The "Barracuda 7200.8" will be available in 250, 300, and 400GB capacities, with 7,200rpms, 8/16MB caches, an average seek time of 8msec, and an actual transfer speed of 80MB/sec. The interfaces will be Ultra ATA/100 and Serial ATA (Native Command Queuing supported).

The "Momentus 7200.1" is the company's first 7,200 rpm 2.5" HD. There will be three capactities: 40, 60, and 100GB. The cache is 8MB, average seek time reading is 10msec and writing 12msec, and both Ultra ATA/100 and Serial ATA interfaces will be offered.

Another 2.5" HD is the 5400rpm "Momentus 5400.2." Capacities will be 60, 80, and 100GB, with caches of 2/8MB, average seek times of 12.5msec reading and 14.5msec writing, and an Ultra ATA/100 interface.

Also, a portable USB HD containing the same drive as those listed above (2.5" models are the existing models) will be released. It will have a capacity and rotation speed of, for the 3.5" model, 250~400GB at 7200rpm, for the 2.5" model, 40GB at 5400rpm, and for the 1" model, 2.5~5GB at 3600rpm.

-Enterprise level gets a 500GB model

Four products have been prepared for the enterprise level. The "Savvio 10K.1" is a 2.5" drive presented in March. It is the first product supporting SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) for an interface. The capacities will be 36/73GB, with an average seek time of 4.1msec for reading and 4.5msec for writing. Models supporting Ultra320 SCSI, as well as 2Gb Fibre Channel will be offered.

The "Cheetah 15K.4" is a 3.5" HD with a 15,000rpm rotation speed. Capacities will be 36, 73, and 146GB, with an average seek time of 3.3ms for reading and 3.8msec for writing. Interfaces will be SAS, Ultra320 SCSI, and 2Gb Fibre Channel.

The "Cheetah 10K.7" is a 3.5" HD with a 10,000rpm rotation speed. Capacities will be 73, 146, and 300GB, with an average seek time of 4.6msec for reading and 5.2msec for writing. Interfaces will be Ultra320 SCSI and 2Gb Fibre Channel.

Finally, the "NL35" is a 3.5" HD with a 500GB capacity. The average seek time is less than 9msec, and it has an actual transfer rate of 65MB/sec; while the interface is currently 2Gb Fibre Channel, a Serial ATA model is planned for shipment in 2005.

-95% market coverage

At the announcement event, Takeshi Kobayashi, Representative Company President, spoke o­n his reactions to the current demand for large capacity storage in today's electronics products.

With the addition of this new lineup, the company's previous weak points of notebook PC products and cellular phone products have been covered. According to Kobayashi, though the company's previous market coverage was 70%, this new lineup has expanded their market coverage to 95%.

While there are currently no plans for the announcement of a 1.8" HD, the company is continuing research/investigation.

Inspired by (images available):
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0609/seagate.htm

Seagate Japan Homepage:
http://www.seagate-asia.com/sgt/japan/homepage.jsp