Notebook hard drives expand capacity

Integral Peripherals announced hard disk drives that will offer expanded storage capacity for so-called thin-and-wide ultraportable notebooks.

Two new models in Integral's Silhouette series of 3-inch-wide mobile hard drives will offer 3.2GB and 4.09GB of memory, respectively. Notebooks using the 3-inch form factor drives currently top out at 3GB of storage capacity.

Notebook hard drives often come in a 2.5-inch-wide, 12.5mm-high form factor. Introduced in late 1996, the 3-inch-wide, 10.5mm-high form factor better accommodates thin-and-wide notebooks from vendors such as IBM, Digital and Compaq. The thin-and-wide design allows for larger LCD screens and full-sized keyboards while economizing on weight.

The drives also have the advantage of being manufactured from widely available, low-cost parts used in high-volume 3.5-inch hard drives, according to Integral.

Integral's 34090 disk drive offers the highest capacity of any 3-inch drive on the market, the company claims, equaling a recently released mobile disk drive from IBM.

Both of Integral's new drives can achieve a transfer rate of 17.75MB/sec and an average seek time of 13 milliseconds.

The Silhouette 34090 and 33250 will go into production in late December and will be available to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and through distribution channels early in the first quarter. Pricing was not available.