Samsung Electronics has begun the mass production of a 3.5? hard disc drive (HDD) that has much less environmental impact than any other on the market today. Development of the unique component was completed last September and a limited number of units were supplied to Canon in Japan for use in a multi-purpose digital product. Now, Samsung has decided to install it in 65% of its PC lineup and will begin mass production this month.

Parts inside the new hard drive are held in place with a tin-silver-copper alloy instead of the usual tin-lead solder. No lead is used in the pain, shock-absorbing rubber or bearing lubricant, either.

The European Union has passed a resolution called RoHS (Restricting use of Hazardous Substances) that will ban the import of all electronic products containing lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium 6 (Cr 6+ ), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) or polybrominated dephenyl ethers (PBDEs) starting in July 2006. This means that PC manufacturers urgently need hard disc drives that are free of lead and other hazardous materials.

Samsung Electronics plans to supply large quantities of its new hard drive to major PC makers and expects many new orders to be received from them.