2.5-inch Hard Drive Shortage in 3Q 2008?

Could the rise in popularity of netbooks / sub-notebooks such as the HP 2133 Mini-Note cause an overal shortage in the global supply of 2.5-inch hard drives later this year?

That’s what DigiTimes is reporting - with the increase in manufacturing of these devices, plus the time of year, it could lead to a shortage if HDD manufacturers don’t increase capacity:

There are only a few global suppliers of 2.5-inch HDDs, including Seagate Technology, Western Digital (WD), Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Fujitsu and Toshiba, and makers of HDD components have not expanded their production capacities, the sources noted. Consequently, global supply of 2.5-inch HDDs may not be able to meet fast growing global demand in the third quarter, a traditional strong sales period for PCs, the sources pointed out.

Makes sense in a way - many of these 8.9-inch devices such as the HP 2133 and the MSI Wind are being purchased as additional laptops/ notebooks which means that for every one of these sold, there is still going to be a 13-inch or larger laptop sold, so there’s two hard drives for one person right there (not to mention the increasing popularity in portable USB-based drives).

Read: DigiTimes

Seagate Starts Suing Solid State Drive Makers

Looks like Seagate is starting up the lawsuits against flash memory-based Solid State Drives (SSDs, you know, the new wonderdrives going into a lot of small laptops, such as the MacBook Air or ThinkPad X300).

A few weeks ago, we ran a story Seagate’s CEO and some interesting comments he made in regards to flash-based Solid State Drives (SSD):

Realistically, I just don’t see the flash notebook sell,” Watkins says. “We just don’t see the proposition.”

But in case flash prices continue to plummet and the flash drives really do catch on, Watkins has something else up his sleeve. He’s convinced, he confides, that SSD makers like Samsung and Intel are violating Seagate’s patents.

The New York Time’s is running a story on the lawsuit::

Seagate Technology, the largest maker of computer hard drives, made a pre-emptive strike against an emerging competitor on Monday when it filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing STEC Inc. of patent infringement.

In the suit, Seagate contends that STEC’s solid-state drive products violate four Seagate patents covering how such drives interface with computers.

STEC, based in Santa Ana, Calif., makes solid-state drives for corporations and other large enterprises, a market that Seagate executives have said the company plans to enter this year. The suit was filed in Federal District Court in the Northern District of California.

STEC had this response:
Read more

Seagate CEO Comments on Solid State Drives, Potential Lawsuit

In an interesting article over at Fortune Magazine, the CEO of Seagate, Bill Watkins, had some interesting comments about Solid State Drives (SSDs), Seagate, Western Digital, Intel and laptops like Apple’s MacBook Air:

But the key thing, Watkins argues, is that SSDs are just too expensive, and will be for a long time. Just look at the MacBook Air. There are two versions of the Apple laptop, one with an 80 GB hard drive for $1,800, and one with a 64 GB SSD for $3,100. Why pay so much more for less storage? It’s not a difficult choice.

“Realistically, I just don’t see the flash notebook sell,” Watkins says. “We just don’t see the proposition.”

But in case flash prices continue to plummet and the flash drives really do catch on, Watkins has something else up his sleeve. He’s convinced, he confides, that SSD makers like Samsung and Intel (INTC) are violating Seagate’s patents. (An Intel spokeswoman says the company doesn’t comment on speculation.) Seagate and Western Digital (WDC), two of the major hard drive makers, have patents that deal with many of the ways a storage device communicates with a computer, Watkins says. It stands to reason that sooner or later, Seagate will sue – particularly if it looks like SSDs could become a real threat.

Watkins might want to keep his lawyers on speed dial. The price of flash has been dropping so fast that it’s surprising even the pros. Intel CEO Paul Otellini had to promise investors earlier this month that he wouldn’t let the losses from Intel’s flash businesses sink the whole company’s profits, after flash prices greeted 2008 by dropping almost twice as fast as the company expected, leaving Intel saddled with a lot of devalued inventory.

I have no idea about their patents, etc., but hopefully it won’t come to a lawsuit. I don’t understand how he doesn’t see the benefits inherent in flash drives either, unless he’s only looking at it from the perspective of a CEO.

Full article at Fortune/CNN Money

Announced: Samsung 2.5″ 500GB Spinpoint M6

Looks like Samsung is joining Fujitsu in the 500GB Club. One difference - more platters and the Fujitsu runs at 4200rpm versus the Samsung’s 5400rpm. The new Samsung offering is called the Samsung Spinpoint M6.

They also announced a new 7200rpm 250GB notebook drive, as well as mentioned that a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) would be available to laptop manufacturers later in the year.

According to CNET, Samsung views the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 very favorably:

Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing for Samsung, called the X300’s debut a “hallmark event” for computing where soon more and more solid-state drives will be configured into notebook platforms, not as an afterthought configurable option.

“We expect this to be the beginning of a trend,” Elliott said.

And though 64GB SSD is what’s available now, but he did say that 128GB SSD will be available to a few PC manufacturers by midyear.

Samsung Spinpoint M6 specifications:
- MSRP of around $299
- 3Gpbs Serial ATA (SATA) Connection
- 2.5-inch form factor
- 0.37-inch (9.5mm) vertical space
- 500GB
- Three 167GB platters
- 5400rpm
- MB Cach

Samsung ships 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive
South Korea’s Samsung has announced the release of a new hard drive, what it is calling the world’s first 2.5-inch hard drive to reach a 500GB capacity. Although it fits into the standard 0.37-inch vertical space reserved for notebook disks, it nevertheless uses three stacked 167GB platters, spinning at 5,400rpm. An 8MB buffer is present, and it interfaces with systems using a 3Gbps SATA connection. Pricing is $299

Articles:
- BusinessWire Press Release
- CNET News

Fujitsu’s New 2.5″ 500GB SATA Drive

Yes, you read that right.

Fujitsu is coming out with a 500GB 2.5″ Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive.

Specifications of the MHZ2 BT drive
- 1.8W
- 4200rpm
- 3.0GB/s
- 8MB Cache

No word on when these will roll out.

Source: Akihabara News

Updated: More details - Fujitsu Press Release
Fujitsu Limited today announced the release of its new series of MHZ2 BT 2.5″ hard disk drives with world-class capacity of up to 500 GB(1). Sales of the new series will begin at the end of May 2008.

The new series responds to the growing need for hard drives in the 2.5″ form factor that can handle high-volume storage for such products as digital video recorders and external hard drives.

The MHZ2 BT series requires only 1.8 W of power for read and write operations, ranking it among the most power-efficient drives in its class. The series is one of many new products announced as part of Fujitsu’s Green Policy Innovation program, unveiled in December 2007 to promote energy-efficient products and services as a way to help customers lower their ecological footprint.

HP Announces 64GB SSD Options for 2510p and 2710p

HP has announced that they will make 64GB Solid-State Drives/Disks (SSD - flash-memory based storage) avaialble as options for the HP Compaq 2510p and the HP Compaq 2710p ultraportable laptops (or in the case of the 2710p, a Tablet PC/Laptop).

As we’ve mentioned in the past with other manufacturers, SSDs will help small laptops, especially ultraportable laptops, across the line. In addition to stability/durability (no moving parts to crash if the laptop is dropped or jostled around), the lack of moving parts also helps increase battery life (no moving parts to, well, move). It also helps because it lowers the cooling requirements - laptop hard drives can be a tremendous source of heat, both within the laptop case itself, as well as on the surface, which can make it uncomfortable to use if your palm rest is right over the hard drive (which is true of many laptops).

It can be a lot faster as well, than traditional mechanical rotating drives.

64GB is a good size for HP to be offering - many were offering 32GB, and 32GB is really pushing it these days, as far as usability with some Operating Systems *cough* Vista *cough*. We’ve seen 64GB options with other manufacturers hit $600 in the past, and so NotebookReview.com’s estimate of $500 extra is probably just about right - the price should have dropped with flash memory since other manufacturers started offering SSDs.

Press Release: HP.com
Source: NotebookReview.com

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