Hitachi announces 7mm thin Z-series hard drives

BANGALORE, INDIA: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) announced the launch new series of the Hitachi Z-series family of Travelstar and CinemaStar hard drives.

The Travelstar Z7K320, CinemaStar Z5K320 drives, are of 7mm 2.5-inch in size and can store up to 320GB of data.

The Travelstar Z7K32 is of 7200 RPM and comes with 16MB cache and a Serial ATA 3Gb/sec interface.

The company claims that the drive offers 1.8 watts (W) read/write power and 0.8W low power idle for more unplugged computing time. It also delivers 2.3 idle / 2.4 seek bels for a quieter, richer audio-listening experience for music, movies and games.

Whereas, Travelstar Z5K320 family of drives has about 5400 RPM, 8MB cache, and Serial ATA 3Gb/sec interface. The Travelstar Z5K320 drive offers 1.6W read/write power and 0.55W low power idle, and delivers quiet acoustics at 1.9 idle / 2.0 seek bels.

Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing, Hitachi GST, “Overall, our new 7mm strategy complements our existing two-disk, 9.5mm 2.5-inch drives, which will continue to serve the market’s high capacity requirements. Our Z-series drives are currently being qualified by virtually every top PC OEM around the world."

CinemaStar Z5K320 family are A/V streaming devices is the fifth generation devices with 5400 RPM, 8MB cache, and Serial ATA 3Gb/sec interface.

Travelstar Z-series family is the company’s fourth generation of drives featuring optional BDE for hard drive level data security.

These self-encrypting drives (SED) meet Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Opal Storage Security specifications. The drives also support Pre-Boot Authentication.

The Travelstar Z7K320 and Z5K320 drive families will be offered in Enhanced Availability (EA) models in capacities of 250GB and 320GB.

Qualification samples of the Travelstar Z5K320 family are now available; whereas, volume shipments will begin in July. Volume shipments of Travelstar Z7K320 and CinemaStar Z5K320 drive families will begin in August.