Hitachi rolls out Travelstar 5K500 hard drive

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has launched its 2.5-inch
mobile hard drive. The half-terabyte (500GB) Travelstar 5K500 is well-suited for
use in 'slim' desktops, where users are seeking high-capacities in a
space-saving, small form factor enclosure. Available in either a 400GB or 500GB
model, is the fourth-generation Hitachi mobile drive to use perpendicular
magnetic recording technology. The half-terabyte drives can store up to 500
hours of digital video, 178 feature length movies, 250 games or 1,25,000
four-minute songs. Travelstar 5K500 drives are available with a 3.0Gb/s Serial
ATA (SATA) interface.

Hitachi will also offer an enhanced-availability (EA) version, called the
Travelstar E5K500 - also available in both 400GB and 500GB capacities, which are
designed for applications requiring 24x7 operation in lower transaction
environments, such as blade servers, network routers, point-of-sale terminals
and video surveillance systems.

The Travelstar 5K500 drives also feature optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE)
for hard drive level data security. While the Travelstar 5K500 uses a three-disk
design to deliver up to 500GB of capacity, the drives are energy-efficient, with
a power profile nearly identical to its two-disk predecessor, the Travelstar
5K250. The new drives feature a 1.9 watt read/write power draw and their 0.7
watt low power idle for longer battery life.