IBM news: GMR heads.
Monday November 10, 9:02 am
Company Press Release
Breakthrough Technology from IBM Enables New Record-Breaking
Desktop PC Hard Drives
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1997--IBM today announced the world's highest capacity desktop PC disk drive with new breakthrough technology called ''Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR)'' heads.
IBM is the first company to offer disk drive products with this component. The drives will be available for the first time next month.
Pioneered by scientists at IBM Research, GMR heads will be used in IBM's new Deskstar 16GP, a 16.8-gigabyte drive that holds eight times more information than today's average desktop hard drive. The new drive can hold 8 hours of full-motion video (MPEG-2 quality video) or information that when printed fills more than 16 pickup trucks.
No bigger than the head of a pin, the GMR head is a major advancement over the previous technology called a magnetoresistive head.
The GMR head is the world's most sensitive sensor for reading computer data on hard drive products. With it, Deskstar 16GP brings high-powered workstation capacity and performance to the average desktop PC user. It makes storage-intensive multimedia business and entertainment programs come to life on the computer, allowing television-like video, picture and sound quality.
GMR uses a totally different scientific effect that creates a high sensitivity that can, by the year 2001, mean drives with more than 10 billion bits per square inch on the part of the drive called the platter. This is an enormous increase over today's desktop PC drive areal densities. Drives with more bits per square inch generally have higher performance, reliability, and capacities. Deskstar 16GP sets a new areal density world record among desktop PC hard disk drives.
Deskstar with GMR -- Powerful Performance and Capacity
The first group benefiting from GMR will be desktop PC users, according to Kevin Reinis, director of performance storage products at IBM's Storage Systems Division.
''With the newest, most advanced recording head technology and 10 capacities to choose from, we have Deskstar products that will satisfy the needs of a full range of users, from the home PC 3-D game enthusiast, to the most advanced desktop computer design engineer,'' added Reinis.''In addition, IBM continues its position as the technology trailblazer of the hard drive industry with the first hard drives with GMR.''
For those requiring even higher performance, IBM also today announced a 7200 RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) 14.4-gigabyte Deskstar 14GXP desktop drive which holds more information than any other drive in its class. Performance desktop users can now choose from a wide range of disk drive capacities and two speeds from IBM's new line of disk drives with GMR technology.
Users who choose the 7200 RPM Deskstar 14GXP drive family can get a choice of three different capacities ranging from 10.1 to 14.4 gigabytes. The company's 5400 RPM Deskstar 16GP drive family, includes seven different capacities, from 3.2 to16.8 gigabytes.
With these high capacities and speeds, users can download web movies, install storage-hungry application programs, save high-resolution digital images, or store an entire data warehouse, right on the new IBM disk drive.
The new Deskstar drive families with GMR will be shipping next month to several customers worldwide.
Customer Testimonials
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SPECIFICATIONS
Deskstar 16GP
Seven capacities: 16.8GB/12.9GB/10.1GB/8.4GB/6.4GB/4.3GB/3.2GB, 5400 RPM, 5.56 ms average latency, 33.3 MB/sec interface transfer rate with Ultra DMA Mode-2, 9.5 ms average seek time, ATA-4 interface, 512 KB Buffer, 5/4/3/3/2/2/1 disk platters, 10/8/6/5/4/3/2 GMR recording heads, 2.687 billion bits per square inch areal density, 630 grams, 25.4 mm height, 101.6 mm width, and depth of 146 mm.
Deskstar 14GXP Three capacities: 14.4GB/12.9GB/10.1GB, 7200 RPM, 512 KB buffer size, 4.17 ms average latency, 33.3 MB/sec interface transfer rate with Ultra DMA Mode-2, 5/5/4 disk platters, 10/8/7 GMR recording heads, 2.440 billion bits per square inch areal density, 630 grams, 25.4 mm height, 101.6 mm width, and a depth of 146 mm.
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For more information on IBM hard drives and a white paper on GMR, go to Web page address: ibm.com . A GMR animation is available at ibm.com .
Note to editors: IBM's new hard disk drives will be on display at Bally's Hotel and Casino during Fall COMDEX, Nov. 17-20, 1997. Contact IBM PR for an interview or demonstration there. For sales inquiries call 1-800-IBM-7777, Dept. star 30.. |
