Popular Science Names Toshiba's New Hard Disk Drive Technology the 'Best of What's New'; Toshiba Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Hard Disk Drive Honored With Grand Award in the Computing Category

Business Wire, Nov 8, 2005

IRVINE, Calif. -- Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced it has received a "Best of What's New" Grand Award in the computing category from Popular Science for its new MK4007GAL 1.8-inch hard disk drive (HDD) with perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). This recognition marks Toshiba's second consecutive "Best of What's New" award, with last year's recognition for the world's smallest HDD at 0.85 inches.

PMR is a technology that the HDD industry has strived to develop and manufacture for more than 20 years. Toshiba was the first company to achieve PMR capability and ship HDDs using this technology, a major breakthrough that overcomes the inherent technical boundaries for recording more data on an HDD. PMR technology allows the HDD industry to deliver additional storage capacity without the need to increase the physical size of the HDD, which is critical for providing multimedia functionality to consumer electronics and computing devices.

Toshiba's 1.8-inch HDD with PMR technology packs 40GB of storage on a single platter - the largest single-platter capacity(1) yet achieved in the 1.8-inch form factor and the highest areal density currently on the market at 206 megabits per square millimeter(2) (133 gigabits per square inch). The 1.8-inch PMR HDD is now shipping in Toshiba's new Gigabeat F41, enabling the MP3 player to store up to 10,000 songs.

"Consumer electronics devices have reached new heights in functionality over the past several years, thanks to the capacity afforded by HDD technology," said Scott Maccabe, vice president and general manager, Toshiba Storage Device Division. "Toshiba is honored to receive this distinction from Popular Science for our part in helping manufacturers create the kinds of devices people need and want. We will continue to push the barriers of hard disk drive technology with new solutions that will make tomorrow's digital devices even more valuable and exciting."

PMR: The Technology Achievement

Toshiba is the first company in the storage industry to commercialize PMR, providing unsurpassed recording density and high operating reliability on its 1.8-inch HDD platform. The technology is based on a new magnetic disk structured to support perpendicular recording, a new high-performance perpendicular magnetic head, and disk and head integration technology that maximizes their combined performance.

Conventional longitudinal recording stores data on a magnetic disk as microscopic magnetic bits aligned in-plane. Although advances in magnetic coatings continue to improve data recording densities on HDD, when the densities become too extreme, the magnetic bits repulse each other due to in-plane alignment. Squeezing more bits on to a disk will eventually reach a point in which crowding degrades recorded bit quality. As such, HDD manufacturers face fast-approaching limits on storage capacities.

By standing the magnetic bits on end, perpendicular recording reinforces magnetic coupling between neighboring bits, achieving higher and more stable recording densities and improved storage capacity.

About Toshiba Storage Device Division

Toshiba SDD, a division of Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., leads the market in the development, design and manufacturing of optical disk drives and small form factor 0.85-inch, 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch hard disk drives. Toshiba SDD markets high-quality peripherals to original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, value-added dealers, systems integrators and distributors in the United States. Inherent in the Toshiba storage family are the high-quality engineering and manufacturing capabilities that have established Toshiba products as worldwide leaders. For more information, visit www.sdd.toshiba.com.

About Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. (TAIS)

With headquarters in Irvine, TAIS is comprised of three divisions: Digital Products Division, Digital Solutions Division and the Storage Device Division. Together, the three divisions provide mobile products and solutions, Internet access plans, communications, storage and imaging products and services. Products include industry-leading portable computers, projectors, DVD/CD recordable products and hard disk drives for computers, telephony products, digital imaging systems, wireless solutions and services.

TAIS provides sales, marketing and services for its wide range of information products in the United States and Latin America. TAIS is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp., which is a world leader in high technology and integrated manufacturing of electrical and electronic components, products and systems. Toshiba has global sales of over $52 billion and more than 300 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.toshiba.com.

About Best of What's New

Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year - breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners - the Best of What's New - are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of Popular Science, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What's New in 1987. Best of What's New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 12 categories: Auto Tech, Aviation & Space, Cars, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, General Innovation, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Personal Health, Photography and Recreation.