The 1TB drive race is on, Hitachi claims pole position

Stan Beer
Saturday, 06 January 2007 03:59

Business IT - Technology

Yesterday Seagate announced that it will bring to market a 1TB hard drive in the first half of the year. Today Hitachi attempted to go one better, saying it will release a 1TB drive three months earlier.

Hitachi’s Deskstar 7K1000 will begin shipping to retail customers in the first quarter of 2007 at a suggested retail price of US$399, or 40 cents per gigabyte.

"Unlike Seagate, Hitachi's drive will be available in three months (not six), we're going to be showing a working model at CES and we're announcing new software for digital video recorder manufacturers that will increase the life expectancy of the drive," a Hitachi spokeperson told iTWire in an email.

Along with the Deskstar 7K1000 for the retail market, Hitachi is has also announced a CinemaStar version 1TB hard drive, which provides optimized capabilities specifically designed for digital video recording (DVR) applications.

"Consumers have come to rely on their DVRs to record and store their favorite programs, and with the increasing availability of high-definition (HD) TV programming, 1TB of storage will become a necessity. High-definition video requires 4 to 5 times more storage capacity than standard-definition video and a terabyte drive allows viewers to easily store and retrieve almost 250 hours of HD programming," according to Hitachi.

Unlike the Seagate, which will store 1TB on four 250GB platters, the 3.5 inch, 7200 RPM Hitachi drive will use five 200GB platters with a lower areal density. According to Hitachi's specs, the new drive will have an average seek time of 8.7 msec

“The industry’s first one-terabyte hard drive represents a milestone that is 50 years in the making, and it reasserts the hard drive’s leadership as the highest-capacity, lowest-cost storage technology,” said Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “In the 51st year, Hitachi is leading a new era for hard drives -- not only providing large amounts of affordable storage, but also customizing and optimizing hard drives to deliver products that are smarter, more durable and more useful to the consumer.”