IBM Announces Three Hard Drive World Records - the Travelstar 25GS hard disk drive for notebook computers - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 16, 1999

IBM Tuesday announced the world's highest capacity notebook PC hard drive.

Travelstar 25GS is designed for premium notebook PCs and holds four times as much data as the average notebook hard drive. The drive holds 25 gigabytes (GB), the equivalent of either 20 TV-quality movies, 792 feet of shelved books or seven million pages of text.

At 5,400 revolutions per minute (rpm), the new Travelstar 25GS drive has the highest rpm of any notebook PC hard drive, contributing to significantly higher performance.

Capacity and performance are not the only records IBM shattered Tuesday, however.

IBM's new 12 GB Travelstar 12GN for ultra-portables is the world's most rugged(1) hard drive. Notebook computers are at their most vulnerable when they are turned off and being transported. If bumped or dropped, there is less chance that damage or data loss will occur with a more rugged disk drive such as Travelstar 12GN.

IBM also Tuesday introduced an 18 GB drive for mainstream notebook users. Travelstar 18GT holds the equivalent of the text printed on 18 pickup trucks full of paper.

Applications driving demand "The portable PC market is expected to grow to exceed 30 million units worldwide," said J. Gerry Purdy, president and CEO of Mobile Insights in Mt. View, California. "The market for hard disk drives will continue to expand in both capacity of storage and number of units."

IBM's new Travelstar drives are now shipping in limited quantities to several PC manufacturers including Compaq Computer Corporation, Dell Computer Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and IBM Personal Systems Group for its award-winning ThinkPads.

"The Internet, digital photography, and offerings such as games, music and video have made the need for larger storage a reality," said Stephan Godevais, vice president of home and small business products, Dell. "As customers find more productive and fun ways to use their computers, they will need the capacity of the 18 GB and 25 GB drives from reliable partners like Dell and IBM." Dell is taking orders and shipping these drives today.(2)

The new high-performance and high-capacity Travelstar drives are also ideal to fill the growing demand for thin desktop PCs also known as miniature desktops.

"By offering IBM Travelstar hard drives in our new high performance Armada E700 and Prosignia notebook 165 products, Compaq underscores its commitment to deliver the industry's highest performance, high-capacity hard drives to our portable customers. This technology offers customers an unprecedented storage capacity of up to 50 GB in a notebook form factor," said Erik Stannow, director of product marketing, Commercial Portables, Compaq.

IBM's hard disk drives for servers, desktop PCs, portable PCs and hand-held appliances received more than 20 awards worldwide in 1998. Also in that year, IBM had more data storage-related patents issued in the U.S. than any other major data storage product manufacturer. The company invented and shipped the first hard disk drive in 1956. For more information about IBM hard drives visit http://www.ibm.com/harddrive or call 1-888-426-5214.

Additional specifications Travelstar 25GS Height: 17 mm, 25.3 GB, 5 disk platters, 10 recording heads, 5,411 rpm, 5.5 ms avg. latency, 500 G/2 ms nonoperating shock, 150 G/2 ms operating shock, 12 ms avg. read seek time, 6.47 ounces (185 grams).

Travelstar 18GT Height: 12.5 mm, 18.1/15.1 GB, 3/3 disk platters, 6/5 recording heads, 4,200 rpm, 7.1 ms avg. latency, 700 G/1 ms nonoperating shock, 175 G/2 ms operating shock, 12 ms avg. read seek time, 4.72 ounces (135 grams).

Travelstar 12GN Height: 9.5 mm, 12/9/6 GB, 2/2/1 disk platters, 4/3/2 recording heads, 4,200 rpm, 7.1 ms avg. latency, 800 G/1 ms nonoperating shock, 175 G/2 ms operating shock, 12 ms avg. read seek time, 3.46 ounces (99 grams).

All these new Travelstar drives are among the first UDMA/66-interface drives for notebook computers contributing to their high performance. In addition, all of IBM's new notebook hard drives feature giant magnetoresistive (GMR) heads, Load/ Unload technology and Enhanced Adaptive Battery Life Extender 3.0. These features improve capacity, reliability and extend a notebook computer's battery life. They also are ATA-4 compliant and support Drive Fitness Test, a diagnostic tool that can work when the operating system is down.

(1) This statement is based on a nonoperating shock rating of 800 G, obtained through rigorous testing.

(2) To order these drives through Dell, go to www.dell.com or call 1-800-388-8542.