Fujitsu touts faster, sleeker hard drives

Fujitsu is to add two faster and sleeker hard drive ranges to its existing product offerings. Shipments of the MAH3xxx and MAJ3xxx series will start at the end of the second quarter. The manufacturer claims the MAJ series offers the industry's fastest maximum internal data transfer rate – moving up to 62.25 MB of information per second. There are three hard drive models in the range, with storage capabilities of 9.1, 18.2 and 36.4GB, with 10,000RPM spindle speeds. The MAH series has two models, and is designed to be the cheaper alternative for manufacturers, offering a slower data retrieval rate of 7200RPM spindle speed. The disks can store 9.1 and 18.2GB of data, and are aimed at the entry-level server and workstation market. Fujitsu is also aiming the components at general computer manufacturers – especially in areas such as the business PC or the gaming sector, or at "forward-thinking" set-top box makers. "The amount of data we are storing is dramatically increasing. People are looking at a minimum of 8MB hard drives, and it is not uncommon to see 20-30MB on hard drives on domestic or commercial machines," said a Fujitsu representative. "One of the areas driving computer technology forward at the moment is the computer gaming industry, where people need to access data very quickly."