03-15-2004, 10:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Toshiba Announces 0.85-inch Hard Drive
"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. Measuring only a quarter 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. 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."
8O Depending on the power requirements, we could see these things in Pocket PCs soon. If the iRiver iHP-140 can squeeze 16 hours of battery life out of a 40GB drive, it certainly doesn't seem out of the question. What do you think?
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03-15-2004, 10:03 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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You could have some pretty sweett MP3 players with this thing. You shouldn't have posted a picture showing a size comparison. I can't stop salivating.
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03-15-2004, 10:22 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 974
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Friggin' Awesome!
Now why can't PDA have the same on-board capacity as tiny little MP3 players already do?
We should be asking oursleves why we are accepting only 64 of memory when we all know taht we'd never buy an MP3 player with that little on it... Well? What do you have to say for yourselves you PDA makers you?
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03-15-2004, 10:54 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 384
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Re: Toshiba Announces 0.85-inch Hard Drive
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Originally Posted by Pat Logsdon
"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. Measuring only a quarter 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. 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."
8O Depending on the power requirements, we could see these things in Pocket PCs soon. If the iRiver iHP-140 can squeeze 16 hours of battery life out of a 40GB drive, it certainly doesn't seem out of the question. What do you think?
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Very cool.
I expect that this will fit into whatever replaces CF in PCI express busses.
Type1 CF Microdrives would be kind of cool as well. But we need VERY agressive caching methods.
I do think the author is right however. I think at this size, they'll start embedding these right into Palmtop devices.
The capacity to store a couple hours of MP3 could move PDAs more aggressively towards younger audiences who might otherwise purchase an iPod. Jukebox synching would make this more practical. However, with such high volume synching, USB2.0 xfer speeds would be necessary.
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03-15-2004, 11:01 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 148
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Good news and bad news.
The bad news first. Toshiba Japan has said this particular drive won't go into production until 2005.
Now the good news. We don't have to wait for .85 inch drives, as there are plenty of 1-inch drives available now. For example, Cornice makes one that can hold 2 GB of data but costs only $70 per unit when bought in large quantities.
I'm really expecting someone to put out a handheld this year with a built-in harddrive.
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03-15-2004, 11:23 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed@Brighthand
I'm really expecting someone to put out a handheld this year with a built-in harddrive.
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True - it must be a matter of time. Great, so now I need to add a 2Gb HD to the spec of the PPC I want, plus a 4 inch VGA screen, 520Mhz processor, WiFi, BT, removable battery, CF and SD slot. :roll: :lol:
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03-16-2004, 01:04 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 602
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jonathon Watkins
True - it must be a matter of time. Great, so now I need to add a 2Gb HD to the spec of the PPC I want, plus a 4 inch VGA screen, 520Mhz processor, WiFi, BT, removable battery, CF and SD slot. :roll: :lol:
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Jonathon,
You keep talking like that and I am going to put my Ax in a waterproof bag so my drool doesn't cause it to short out. I think we should start a discussion on what would make for a dream PPC.
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03-16-2004, 01:07 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 155
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that hd looks so darn tasty i can eat it like it was a chip! =)
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03-16-2004, 01:13 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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Hard drives have come a long way in the past couple of years. There's been a lot of innovation in this previously stale market.. I used to think the hard drive market was dead since manufacturers kept making their hard drives super large.
These new mini-drives are hitting a whole new market. Anything can use them, and companies are finding new ways to incorporate them into their products. While computer companies have been quick to unveil new consumer electronics with small drives, the electronics giants (*ahem* Sony...) have been pretty lax about using this new technology. I just don't understand why.
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03-16-2004, 02:14 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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Have size figures? How does it compare with SD cards, size-wise?
With 2-4GB on these things and woon much more, I would not even mind if they would create a newer slot format (*) if it is a bit larger than SD slots.
A sort of Microdrive in an SD like slot 8) 8) 8)
(*) and God knows how much I hate new card formats, but in this case I think it's much better than an embedded drive; of course it's even better if it is in a pure SD slot format !!
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