120GB 2.5-inch disk drive

Fujitsu has begun initial production of a for notebooks, according to PC World: "The new drive offered 20 per cent more storage capacity and several other improvements over Fujitsu's nearest 2.5-inch rival...Samples of the drives were already with notebook vendors for testing and Fujitsu planned to begin shipping commercial versions of the drive during the second quarter." The report says that the increased storage capacity was achieved by packing data more closely together on the disk's surface, resulting in an areal density of 104Gbits per square inch. Other improvements include a doubling of the number of times the drive head can be loaded and unloaded from the disk to 600,000, a cut in power consumption and an increase in the drive's ability to handle mechanical shocks.

by MacNN Staff