Maxtor has topped out the capacities of its DiamondMax and DiamondMax VL lines, timing their launch to catch the Christmas buying season. The new DiamondMax 40 has up to 10.2GB per disk, for up to 40.9GB in a four-platter configuration. It has average seek time of under 9ms, a 2MB buffer incorporating a high-speed 100MHz SDRAM memory, and is capable of transfer rates of 66MBps. Maxtor claims this is the highest capacity per platter in the mainstream desktop systems market. The DiamondMax VL 20 now has 10, 15 and 20GB capacity drives available, to pad out the budget product line. Its seek time is a little slower at 9.5ms, and it has a 512KB cache buffer. The little monsters go into production in October. Estimated retail prices for the DiamondMax 40.9GB is $349 and the 20.4GB VL is $229. Mike Cannon, Maxtor's president and CEO, said the company was targeting consumers with the new products. But this this should not compromise the needs of its commercial customers. Maxtor's new lines have sent John Monroe, chief analyst at Dataquest, into hypergush mode. "To deliver a 10GB per platter technology prior to the year 2000 is a staggering achievement," he said. "A company that can ship a rich range of higher capacities for emerging consumer and internet applications -- as well as maintaining a low-cost 10GB configuration for sub $700 PCs, should have some compelling strategic advantages at key OEM accounts." ®