Storage maker WD has announced it is shipping the world’s first ultra-slim 2.5-inch, 5 mm hard drives and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD). The new WD Blue and the WD Black SSHD are obviously designed for integration into slimmest devices and small form factor PCs, which are becoming more the trend.
According to WD, making the hard drive very slim will help address the “tradeoffs” system designers often make between capacity, physical size and performance.
“With the launch of our new WD Blue 5 mm ultra slim hard drives and our WD Black SSHD products, currently shipping to OEMs, WD is delivering to our customers a variety of solutions that maximize storage capacity and volumetric efficiency, as well as performance and system responsiveness, for consumers,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president of WD’s client computing business unit. “Our engineering team took a clean-sheet approach with 5 mm to deliver an ultra-thin hard drive that enables a world of possibilities and applications for mobile computing and beyond.”
WD Blue and WD Black 5 mm drives have these features:
• Ultra-slim Form Factor – 5 mm height with compact connector offers system designers a greater degree of chassis design freedom. This ultra-slim form factor reduces weight by up to 36 percent compared with a standard 9.5 mm drive.
• Best-in-class Acoustics and Shock – WD’s best-in-class acoustics use technologies that reduce noise when the drive is active or idle. The WD Blue and WD Black 5 mm drives deliver unprecedented operation and non-operation shock specifications with 400 G and 1000G, respectively.
• Edge Card Technology – WD designed the connector and board utilizing cell phone miniaturization technology to maximize the mechanical sway space in the hard drive and ensure shock performance.
• Edge Card Connector – WD Blue 5 mm hard drives also feature the first application of a new small form factor SFF-8784 edge connector. This new connector receives power from and interfaces with the host I/O bus via the SATA interface connector SFF-8784.
• StableTrac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations which enables consistently higher performance.
• Dual Stage Actuator – Leading-edge enterprise dual stage actuators provide two actuators that improve positional accuracy over the data track(s). The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.
Price and Availability
Shipping today to select industrial distributors and OEM customers in 500 GB capacities, WD Blue 2.5-inch 5 mm hard drives, (model: WD5000MPCK) has a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of PHP 3,995. WD Blue 2.5-inch 5 mm hard drives are covered by a two-year limited warranty. WD Black SSHD versions are currently shipping to OEM’s and integrators with both WD proprietary hybrid technology and industry standard SATA I/O technology. More information on WD Blue 2.5-inch 5 mm hard drives may be found on the company’s website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=800#tab11.
WD Blue and WD Black SSHD: world’s first 5 mm 2.5-inch hard drive
May 9, 2013
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