From this Month's Computer Shopper:
www5.zdnet.com
The Big Three: Wider Notebook Hard
Drives
by David English
Originally published in the June 1997 issue of Computer Shopper
With notebook manufacturers always seeking ways to make their products
smaller and lighter, you would think the trend in notebook hard drives would
be toward miniaturization. But some manufacturers are shifting from
2.5-inch-wide to 3-inch-wide hard drives. The reasons have to do with higher
capacity, lower prices, and the changing shape of notebook PCs.
Because the platters of a 3-inch hard drive have a surface area 82 percent
greater than those of a 2.5-inch drive, a 3-inch drive can provide the same or
more data storage at a lower relative cost--good news for mobile buyers
demanding drives that approach the speed and capacity of desktop media.
How much cheaper are the new drives? "The current 2.5-inch drives cost
about 25 to 30 cents per megabyte," says T.J. Scimone, marketing director
for JTS Corp. "The manufacturers of 3-inch hard drives think they can
undercut that by 30 percent." Scimone also predicts that 3-inch notebook
drives could eventually achieve average access times of 6ms and rotation
speeds of 10,000 rpm.
JTS currently supplies 3-inch drives to Compaq, NEC, and Samsung. The
drives, which bear JTS' Nordic label, come in 1.08GB, 1.44GB, 1.62GB,
and 2.16GB flavors. Because notebook manufacturers dislike relying on a
single source for any component, Western Digital builds identical drives in its
Portfolio series under a cross-licensing agreement with JTS.
Yet another manufacturer, Integral, has recently entered the market with its
1.65GB and 2.16GB Silhouette series. Seagate is rumored to be gearing up
for production of 3-inch drives as well.
Notebook manufacturers are able to accommodate the new form factor
because the new drives, while slightly wider than their predecessors, are also
slightly thinner--usually 10.5mm thick, compared with 12.5mm or 17mm for
most high-capacity 2.5-inch drives. That coincides with trends in notebook
design: Larger screens and keyboards are increasing the depth and width of
laptops even as manufacturers whittle away at their height.
Although 2.5-inch drive manufacturers are expected to counter with their own
10.5mm-thick devices, Scimone predicts that 3-inch drives should continue to
have the advantage in cost and capacity.
When using inexpensive metal-in-gap head technology, he explains, the larger
platters let 3-inch drives equal the capacity of 2.5-inch drives for less money.
With newer magneto-resistive head technology, Scimone says, 3-inch drives
can surpass the capacity of the smaller drives for the same amount of money.
Compaq was the first major notebook manufacturer to adopt 3-inch drives,
signing an agreement with JTS in 1995 to use the drives in its Armada
notebooks. Western Digital officials claim that five of the top 10 notebook
vendors are using or plan to use the new form factor. To ease the transition,
many firms are designing portables that can accept either a 3-inch drive or a
12.5mm-thick 2.5-inch drive during assembly.
Aftermarket vendors are using the new drives in notebook add-on products.
Boston-based VST Technologies (508-263-9700) uses 3-inch drives in the
640MB, 800MB, and 1.2GB versions of its Expansion Bay Hard Drive,
designed for the modular bays of Apple's PowerBook 190, 3400, and 5300.
And Acer sells a removable 3-inch hard drive for the expansion slot in its
notebooks.
Consumers may not be able to tell from a model's spec sheet which
notebooks have the new 3-inch drives. But any notebook buyer should benefit
from the new form factor's potential for higher capacities at lower costs. |
