Seagate turns notebook hard drives on end

Yesterday, Seagate Technology began shipping the world's first 160GB notebook hard drive based on perpendicular recording technology. The 2.5-inch Momentus 5400.3 is a 5,400rpm hard disk drive, though it can operate at 4,200rpm to save power and extend battery life. Instead of laying data bits flat (longitudinal recording), stands data bits on end, which means you can pack more data onto a single disk and decrease seek times, as more data can pass under the drive head in the same amount of time. Seagate is currently shipping the Ultra ATA 100Mbps version to the OEM channel but plans to release a version with the 1.5Gbps SATA interface later this year.