Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 7, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
With the Travelstar 5K500, Hitachi GST has succeeded in combining the advantages of a high-capacity computer with the mobility and convenience of a notebook. The Travelstar is especially suitable for use in compact small desktop systems, benefiting, for example, households that use several PCs.
For the fourth generation, Hitachi is using PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technology in the Travelstar 5K500, available as 400 GB and 500 GB models. The half-terabyte drives can store up to 500 hours of digital film material, 178 feature films, 250 games or 125,000 four-minute songs. The Travelstar 5K500 series is equipped with a 3.0 Gb/s Serial ATA interface.
Hitachi is also bringing an additional version to market, the Travelstar E5K500. This model is likewise available with 400 GB or 500 GB capacity and is specifically equipped for 24-hour operation in blade servers, network routers, point-of-sale terminals and video-surveillance systems.
“The Travelstar 5K500 meets market demand,” said Larry Swezey, Director, Consumer and Commercial HDD at Hitachi Global Storage Technology. “Consumers now see notebooks less as purely functional technical devices and more as mobile entertainment stations, packed with extensive archives of films, music, games and pictures to take with them. As a result, notebooks are increasingly equipped with high-resolution widescreens and large speakers for playing digital video and music. Hitachi’s new Travelstar was designed specifically for these changing requirements to guarantee a maximum entertainment experience.”
The Travelstar 5K500 uses Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) technology. RVS was developed specifically for entertainment-focused notebooks, which are usually equipped with premium speakers and offer an enhanced film, music and games experience. These speakers can, however, cause vibrations in the notebook chassis. To mitigate adverse effects on system performance, the Travelstar 5K500 uses RVS as an early-warning system, allowing interference to be detected in advance so measures can stabilise the write head and avoid disruption. The Travelstar 5K500 also has 400 G shock protection, safeguarding data against shocks and rough handling.
Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) ensures data security at hard-drive level. Until now, data on a hard drive could be protected either by software-based encryption or by a system password. Drive-level encryption, however, provides greater security than either option. All BDE models are equipped with a 1.5 Gb/s SATA interface.
Environmental factors play an important role for consumers when choosing products. Hitachi designed the Travelstar for these requirements without sacrificing system performance for energy efficiency. While the Travelstar 5K500 uses three platters to offer a maximum capacity of up to 500 GB, its power consumption is almost the same as the two-platter predecessor, the Travelstar 5K250. Power consumption of 1.9 watts in read/write operation and only 0.9 watts at idle guarantees longer battery life.
Since entering the 2.5-inch segment in 1991, Hitachi has introduced innovations in every category: storage density, performance, power management, acoustics, shock resistance, reliability and variety of product options. The 5K500 series will continue the success of the Hitachi Travelstar as one of the most popular hard-drive models in the 2.5-inch segment.
“The PC is currently undergoing a dramatic change from a purely technical tool to a lifestyle product,” said Richard Shim, Personal Computing Research Manager at IDC. “One of the most important changes is the rapid rise of notebooks as the dominant PC form over desktop computers. At the same time, desktop devices are becoming slimmer while performance remains the same or even improves in some cases. A central component that enables this ‘less is more’ concept is hard drives, which continue to increase in storage capacity while retaining their relatively small size.”
Availability
The Travelstar 5K500 will be launched worldwide from February 2008. The Travelstar E5K500 will be available at the end of the second quarter of 2008.
