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Toshiba has pushed its hard disk drive technology up one level with the unveiling of a new 2.5-inch drive that has the industry's highest capacity per platter, the company said Tuesday.

The new drive has an areal density of 48.8 gigabits per square inch (bpsi), which means 48.8 gigabits of data can be put into one square inch of magnetic recording space. That translates into a storage capacity of 30GB of data on each 2.5-inch-diameter platter. The new drive has two platters for a total capacity of 60GB, according to a Toshiba statement.

Toshiba starts sample shipping this week and plans mass production in late May.

The new technology benefits users in one of two ways. Though hard drives that can hold 60GB of data are already available, the greater storage density means that Toshiba can build drives with fewer platters, making them around 25 percent thinner and 50 percent lighter than existing units. And while drives with similar physical characteristics are also available, Toshiba's new drive beats their data storage capacity by 50 percent.

The 2.5-inch drives are commonly used for mobile devices such as notebook PCs, although companies have recently begun using them in other types of mobile devices, such as digital music players like SonicBlue's Rio Riot, and consumer electronics products such as digital video recorders.

Still Pushing

Following this trend, a removable hard disk technology has been also developed by Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Phoenix Technologies, Pioneer, Sanyo Electric, Sharp, and Victor. Protected by a plastic case, the removable hard disk drive will allow users to easily upgrade the disk and transfer digital images, audio, and video between computer and consumer electronics platforms, instead of buying an upgraded hard disk drive every time a new development is made in drive technology.

Toshiba has also demonstrated prototypes of such a system.

The newest Toshiba drive has a maximum rotational speed of 4200 revolutions per minute (rpm), a data transfer rate of 100MB per second, and an average seek time of 12 milliseconds. The product measures 2.8 inches by 4 inches by .38 inches, and it weighs 3.5 ounces.

At the research and development level, Toshiba has already demonstrated a prototype drive with an areal density of 52 gigabits per square inch on a 2.5-inch drive, and hopes to achieve an areal density of 100 gigabits per square inch before the end of 2003.