US : Toshiba announced the development of a 0.85-inch hard disk drive (HDD), the first drive to deliver multi-gigabyte storage in a sub-one-inch form factor.

Expected to be available in 2GB and 4GB capacities, Toshiba will start sampling the new drive in summer 2004, with mass production to begin in late 2004.

"Hard disk drive technology has migrated from the computer to digital music players to mobile phones and other portable gadgets that require meaningful storage capacities in a pocket-size form factor," said Amy Dalphy, manager, HDD business unit, Toshiba SDD. "Toshiba continues to lead and enable the market by expanding storage possibilities with gigabytes of capacity packed into a tiny hard disk drive that fits on your fingertip."

Measuring only a quarter of the size of Toshiba's 1.8-inch drive, the 0.85-inch HDD is expected to boost the functionality of a new generation of products, including mobile phones, digital audio players, PDAs, digital still cameras, camcorders and external storage devices. Toshiba initially plans to introduce capacities of 2GB and 4GB, and anticipates achievement of even higher densities in the 0.85-inch form factor.

Toshiba Creates the Market

Toshiba set the stage for small format HDDs in 2000 with a removable 1.8-inch PC Card HDD in a 2GB capacity. The company has subsequently rolled out a series of products that consistently helps customers to create groundbreaking, innovative and necessary products for today's mobile environment. Toshiba's 1.8-inch embedded drives are now available in 5GB, 10GB, 15GB, 20GB, 30GB and 40GB capacities and are the storage devices enabling some of the hottest portable products on the market.