7mm HDDs Spin Down Prices on Ultrabook & Ultrathin Notebooks

By Paul B. Wordman on February 24, 2012 · 11:02 am

It seems as if pundits, analysts, industry observers, and perhaps tablet and Apple product lovers have declared the notebook PC dead countless times; but who's counting anyway?

Well, it turns out Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) is counting all the way to a record-shattering 25-million Travelstar Z-series 7mm hard-drives being shipped, and designed specifically for thin-and-light ultrabook and ultrathin laptops. Many additional millions of notebooks will be sold, containing other brands of magnetic or sold-state-drives (SSDs). Apparently, laptops are not such a corpse after all.

Someone else is counting too. ISH research firm associate, Ryan Chien, said, "We expect cache SSD shipments to soar over the next couple of years due to the rise in Ultrabook demand". "Shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units - a 2,817 percent increase compared to 2011 - and will reach approximately 121 million units by 2015. This growth is extremely significant for HDD manufacturers, as combining slim magnetic storage with caching SSDs gives customers high-speed access to massive amounts of storage at an affordable price."

Why It Matters

The implications for ultrathin, ultrabook sales volume are rather clear. Average price-points for the thin-and-light notebook category can be reduced by using hybrid drives incorporating small amounts of sold-state memory with the vastly improved and thinner, magnetic Hitachi z-series drives; instead of pure solid-state-drives.

Wentao Yang, vice president of Global Procurement for Lenovo said, "We’re witnessing a change in the industry in terms of how laptops are designed. From manufacturing, performance, efficiency, weight, aesthetics and features, we’re bringing compelling advantages to the end user."

Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at Hitachi GST, said, "We are proud to report that all major PC OEMs have qualified our previous generation 7mm drives for a variety of notebooks, Ultrabooks and CE devices, confirming that the industry continues to recognize the value and benefits of this new form factor".

Characteristics of the 7mm Travelstar Z7K500 2.5-inch Hard Drive

33% better performance than other 2.5-inch hard drives

Industry's first 6Gb/sec SATA interface

Industry's fastest & highest capacity single-disk, 2.5-inch, 7,200 RPM HDD

32 MB buffer

Power-efficient: 1.8 watts read / write, 0.8W when idle

Highest 2.5-inch HDD operating shock at 400Gs

Quiet, almost silent operation

Advanced Format: increases sector size from 512 bytes to 4,096 bytes

Improved error-correction capabilities

Data density of 630 gigabits per square inch

Supports standard power & data connectors

Available as a self-encrypting drive

Optional EA (enhanced-availability) for apps requiring 24/7 data transfers

Available capacities: 500GB, 320GB, & 250GB

Assessment

In 2012 the majority of thin-and-light ultrabooks and ultrathins will ship with hybrid drives which will incorporate small amounts of sold-state memory and a magnetic hard-disc-drive. Prices for that category will fall earlier than predicted by analysts. Consumers and corporate buyers will satisfy pent-up demand, and the resulting sales volume will be the beginning of the ultrathin tidal-wave. The notebook lives, for much more than another day.