Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2005/02/24/seagate_hitachi_6gb_1in_hdd/

Seagate, Hitachi launch 1in 6GB HDDs

Who's shipping first, though?

By Tony Smith

Posted in Channel, 24th February 2005 11:47 GMT

Seagate and Hitachi both announced 1in hard drives with a 6GB storage capacity this week, though the US company appears to have been the first to ship such a product.

Seagate's 6GB ST-1 unit started shipping last December, the company said yesterday, and may well be the storage component found in Apple's latest iPod Mini, unveiled yesterday too.

Certainly when news of a higher-capacity iPod Mini emerged late last year, it was suggested that the new machine would not contain a Hitachi drive as the first version had done, Apple allegedly having been annoyed with the problems the drive maker experienced ramping up production of its 4GB 1in unit, the Microdrive 3K4

Hitachi's new, 6GB drive, the 3K6, is set to ship in a couple of months' time. The 16g unit will ship in two forms, one with a CompactFlash Type II connector, the other with an IDE interface. The drive can withstand 200G of operating shock and 2000G of shock when the unit is in stand-by mode, Hitachi claimed. It spins at 3600rpm, and provides an average seek time of 12ms. There's 128KB of on-board buffer RAM.

Seagate did not provide comparable specifications for its product, preferring to discuss its RunOn and G-Force resilience systems more broadly, touting the suitability for mobile devices such as PDAs and MP3 players. ®

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