Hitachi ships Travelstar 5K160 Super-pendicular hard drive

Hitachi today started shipping its most reliable and technically-advanced 2.5-inch hard drive — Travelstar 5K160. The 160GB Travelstar 5K160 is a 5400 RPM 2.5-inch hard drive designed for notebook and mobile computing.

The company has dubbed the Travelstar 5K160 the "Super-pendicular Drive" because it combines several innovations: improved corrosion resistance due to implementation of proprietary alloy combination and layer-deposition process; use of new PMR write head able to write smaller data bits more sharply and with greater fidelity; use of the iridium-manganese-chromium (IrMnCr) read-head alloy claimed to double the reliability.

Digit Life - Hitachi Ships "Super-Pendicular" Hard Drive

Of course, a PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording technology) is only at the beginning of its life cycle and such high-capacity hard drives carry premium pricing. Hitachi said it will make the 5K160 available this summer in volume for $270. A Travelstar 5K160 upgrade kit for notebooks will also be available for $300. This makes the Hitachi drive slightly more expensive than the competing Seagate Momentus 5400.3, which currently sells for around $250.

Toms Hardware - Hitachi launches 160 GB perpendicular mobile hard drive