Toshiba today announced a new line-up of high performance 2.5-inch HDDs, including a low-noise flagship model that boosts areal density to 477Mbit/mm2 (308Gbpsi) to achieve a capacity of 400GB on just two platters, plus five 7,200rpm drives.

Toshiba will feature the new drives at DISKCON JAPAN 2008, organized by The International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA), which will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from July 22 to 23, and at IFA 2008, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, from August 29 to September 3.

The MK4058GSX uses an improved read-write head and enhanced magnetic layer to boost areal density to 477Mbit/mm2 and achieve a capacity of 400GB on only two platters, the highest data density of any of Toshiba?s 2.5-inch HDD. A further plus is that acoustic noise during data seek has been reduced by 2 decibels (dB), compared to the company?s current top-of-the-line 320GB MK3252GSX, making operation almost inaudible. An improved energy consumption efficiency also makes the MK4058GSX approximately 20% more efficient than Toshiba?s current top-of-the-line MK3252GSX. The 400GB hard disk drive has an average seek time of 12ms, an 8MB buffer and comes with a SATA interface.

The five other drives that Toshiba has added to its line-up take full advantage of a 7,200rpm rotation speed to boost performance. Compared to the current 200GB model (MK2049GSY), the 320GB MK3254GSY improves maximum internal data transfers rate by approximately 14% to support high-speed processing of high volume data, meeting demand for notebook and desktop PCs offering faster performance. The 320GB drives is also 37% more efficient than the MK2049GSY in terms of energy consumption efficiency. All of the drives, available in a line-up of 80, 120, 160, 250 and 320GB capacities, support an optional Free Fall Sensor function, that detects a falling HDD and parks the head before impact. The new disks feature an average seek time of 12ms and come with a 16MB buffer memory and a SATA interface.

Mass production of the 400GB MK4058GSX (5,400rpm) will start from September, targeting notebook PC and consumer electronic applications. Mass production of the 7,200rpm drives will start in August. The line-up includes the 320GB MK3254GSY and models with 80, 120, 160 and 250GB capacities.