Toshiba develops world's smallest hard-disk drive: report

TOKYO (AFP) Dec 14, 2003
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp. has developed the world's smallest hard-disk drive, a coin-sized device measuring 0.85 inch (about 2.1 centimeters) in diameter, a press report said Sunday.

The drive, which is small enough to be used in mobile phones, can store up to two hours of high-definition moving images and just under 60 hours of music, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The Toshiba HDD is initially expected to be priced at around 30,000 yen (280 dollars).

Global HDD sales are expected to total about 220 million units in 2003, Nihon Keizai said, with most of those mainly US-made larger disk drives.

Japanese makers dominate the market for small HDDs used in cellular phones, digital home appliances and car navigation systems, it added.

SPACE.WIRE