“Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor storage, today announced a new family of 1.8-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) that deliver the industry’s highest capacities in this category with its 30GB “MK3006GAL” and 60GB “MK6006GAH.” These drives also feature improved shock tolerance, power consumption and vibration control for better performance in mobile consumer electronics devices.

To achieve this industry-leading capacity, Toshiba has set a new benchmark for areal density in the 1.8-inch HDD category at 93.5 gigabits per square inch. This has allowed Toshiba to pack 30GB of data onto a single 1.8-inch platter, an increase of 50 percent over current models, delivering drives that are ideally suited for in-demand consumer electronics products such as mobile audio players and mobile notebook PCs.”

This formal announcement confirms Toshiba’s earlier revelation in Taiwan of the new 60GB drive, for which the company said Apple had already placed orders. The new details on size (60GB is the same thickness as current 40GB iPods; 30GB is same size as current 20GB models) and power consumption (lower) suggest that future iPods based on the new drive will be in cases of the same size as today’s models, but should feature even better battery life.

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Dennis Lloyd

I'm a passionate, long-time lover of Apple products, and was a civil draftsman and graphic designer before creating the iLounge web site. My prior projects include work for The Los Angeles Times' LATimes.com, and the company Creative Domain, where I developed websites for clients including Columbia Pictures, Disney, Fox Studios, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers. As the Publisher of iLounge, I direct the site's community forums, photo galleries, iPod User Group, and general business affairs, which have grown under my watch to over sixteen million page views every month. I'm happily married with one daughter, one dog (Rocket the Wonderdog), one cat (Ferris), many iPods, iPhones, iPads, and two turntables.