Western Digital Corp. today announced that it is shipping its next-generation 80 Gbyte-per-platter technology, which will produce PC hard drives that can store up to 250 Gbytes.
This new hard drive technology adds 25 percent more capacity to Western Digitals existing WD Caviar 200-Gbyte hard drive line, which was based on 67 Gbyte-per-platter technology.
WD Caviar 7,200 RPM 80 Gbyte-per-platter hard drives began shipping last month. WD Caviar 80 Gbyte-per-platter hard drives are offered in single and multi-platter designs in capacities of 80, 120, 160, 200 and 250 Gbytes. Shipment of the multi-platter hard drives, including the flagship WD Caviar 250 GB, is expected next month.
WD Caviar Special Edition hard drives equipped with 80 Gbyte-per-platter technology are also anticipated to be available next month, the company said. These drives feature an 8-Mbyte cache size, which is four times larger than the industry standard 2-Mbyte cache size and are covered under warranty for a three-year period.
Prices were not disclosed.
“Eighty Gbytes-per-platter, combined with our unique expertise in high capacity 7,200-RPM hard drives, is now the best technology to bring to market the next-generation biggest and fastest hard drives,” said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president of marketing at Western Digital, in a statement.
Clarification: To achieve the 250-Gbyte capacity, WDs new 250-Gbyte Caviar models use high-yield disk platters which each hold 83 Gbytes.