Toshiba Ramping Up 0.85 Inch Hard Drives

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117952,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Toshiba plans to begin commercial production of its 0.85-inch hard drive before the end of this year, the company says. The drive, which was first unveiled earlier this year, is about the same size as an SD (Secure Digital) memory card. Target applications include a new generation of smaller digital music players and other portable multimedia devices such as cellular telephones. Specifications of the first production drives were not available, but Toshiba's latest prototype drive can store up to 2GB of data and about one-tenth of an inch thick, a Toshiba spokesperson says...Looking ahead to the end of the decade, Toshiba says it expects 0.85-inch hard drives to boast capacities of between 15GB and 30GB. Larger 1.8-inch drives should be available in capacities between 160GB and 320GB while 2.5-inch drives could be available up to 640GB and 3.5-inch drives to 2TB."</i><br /><br />Anyone else looking forward to the end of the decade? I sure am! :mrgreen:

[bjornkeizers]

Wow. Imagine that - 2 tb in your pocket. I could store every movie I've ever seen in DVD quality.... on my PPC.... 8O

[mscdex]

Hmmm... the end of the decade huh? Well that's just about when Leno will be retiring and Conan O'Brien will be taking his place (seriously).

[ADBrown]

Wow. Imagine that - 2 tb in your pocket. I could store every movie I've ever seen in DVD quality.... on my PPC.... 8O

That's the 3.5 inch hard drives, the size you'd seen in a desktop. They say that the 0.85 inch ones, about the size you'd see in a microdrive, would be 15-30 GB.

[dean_shan]

...while 2.5-inch drives could be available up to 640GB and 3.5-inch drives to 2TB.

I'd take a laptop with 2TB of storage. You could have a killer mobile video editing station with that drive.

[Shuushin]

we are seeing the emergence of this dichotomy between local storage like this, and greater bandwidth and speed for remote data and applications.

The combination, if we can provide the content and interfaces, should be spectacular.

[Jason Dunn]

I'd take a laptop with 2TB of storage. You could have a killer mobile video editing station with that drive.

Laptops take 2.5" drives not 3.5", but really, 640 GB is more than enough for a killer video work station. ;-)

[bjornkeizers]

Wow. Imagine that - 2 tb in your pocket. I could store every movie I've ever seen in DVD quality.... on my PPC.... 8O

That's the 3.5 inch hard drives, the size you'd seen in a desktop. They say that the 0.85 inch ones, about the size you'd see in a microdrive, would be 15-30 GB.

Whoops I must've misread that. You people should use the damn metric system - all those inches and feets are confusing the rest of the world. :-)

[ctmagnus]

We do... It's the source in this case that doesn't. ;)

[joefuture]

What would you really do with 2TB on your Pocket PC? I couldn't imagine pulling that much data across a nasty slow USB connection :)

In fact, the more I think about it, what I really want is a super fast, super reliable, ubiquitously available fast wireless connection to the safe/secure/backed up server where all that data is stored. If I lost 2TB worth of files because I left my PPC on the bus, I'd be up a creek.

[pivaska]

Wouldn't it be nice if that small drive could actually be used by your present SD slot?

[maximus]

Anyone else looking forward to the end of the decade? I sure am! :mrgreen:

Not really.

I am more inclined to go to the opposite direction. Going back in time, to 10 years ago. Taking with me my sidekicks : motorola V600, axim X5, Sigma SD9 and ECS Laptop with dothan 1.8g 2mb cache.

I will be the coolest kid in the block (in the world?) with all these advanced gadgets ...

Imagine the questions that you are going to get : Those little SD cards have 1 gigs storage each ? You can play videos on this little device called axim ? 10 megapixel SLR digital camera ? Radeon mobility 9700 on a laptop ?

:mrgreen:

[ADBrown]

Wouldn't it be nice if that small drive could actually be used by your present SD slot?

That's what CompactFlash microdrives are for. :devilboy:

[milo]

What would you really do with 2TB on your Pocket PC? I couldn't imagine pulling that much data across a nasty slow USB connection :)

In fact, the more I think about it, what I really want is a super fast, super reliable, ubiquitously available fast wireless connection to the safe/secure/backed up server where all that data is stored. If I lost 2TB worth of files because I left my PPC on the bus, I'd be up a creek.

I guess the next thing for PPCs along this line is optical cable communication. Toshiba did say they planned to be a leading producer of blue leds as well.

360Mb on a 1.8" drive? I wonder if solid state compact flash will get that high? Certainly is a good reason to leave the CF slot in on some PPC models.

[ricksfiona]

I'm actually not that impressed with capacities here... SD cards have been increasing in size quite quickly and the price has dropped big time. By the time we reach their limitation, we'll have another format that allows for even more space.

The space quoted for the SD sized drive isn't all that impressive. I think Flash memory will keep up quite nicely and I'll take that over a drive anytime..

BTW, aren't we due to get rid of drive technology? Isn't holographic 3-dimentional supposed to be on the horizon? Drive technology sucks... It's slow, touchy and sucks up too much power.

[HTK]

BTW, aren't we due to get rid of drive technology? Isn't holographic 3-dimentional supposed to be on the horizon? Drive technology sucks... It's slow, touchy and sucks up too much power.

And it doesn't display princess Leia.
That will be the main use of my very first holographic 3 dimensional fusion powered laser enhanced plasma fueled device.

[ricksfiona]

BTW, aren't we due to get rid of drive technology? Isn't holographic 3-dimentional supposed to be on the horizon? Drive technology sucks... It's slow, touchy and sucks up too much power.

And it doesn't display princess Leia.
That will be the main use of my very first holographic 3 dimensional fusion powered laser enhanced plasma fueled device.

Maybe you should do some homework before mocking me...

Look at the latest posting regarding new memory capacities and their use of 3 dimensional storage capabilities... Hah!

[Jonathon Watkins]

Ricksfiona, I don't think HTK is mocking you. He is sharing in the joke. I thought he was taking your point and extending it into the well known geek domain of Star Wars technologies. (Or am I reading too much into that? :wink:)

I think holographic memory storage is still very much at the laboratory stage. I don't get the feeling we''ll see much commercially for a good while. Still, it's time will come.

[Will T Smith]

... They're too small.

My guess is we'll see a smaller version of Nexcard that will eventually trickle into PDA/phone/micro-laptop usage.