Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has introduced a new 1.8-inch hard disk drive for mobile devices. Hitachi's hard disk offerings range from the one-inch Microdrive to 3.5-inch high-end enterprise hard drives.

The company said the new Hitachi Travelstar Compact Series C4K40, available in 40 and 20 gigabyte capacities, is compliant with the SFF8111 standard, making it ideal for laptop computers, Tablet PCs, handhelds, and portable consumer electronics devices. The drive is slated to be available in April.

The new drive features a rotational speed of 4,200 rpm, areal density of 67 billion bits per square inch, and low power consumption in both idle and read operations than 2.5-inch models. In addition, the new drive has connector compatibility with the current 2.5-inch form factor, allowing product developers and manufacturers to more easily transfer from 2.5-inch designs to the new 1.8-inch design.

Hitachi also announced plans to squeeze four gigabytes of data onto its 1-inch Microdrive.The 4GB Microdrive is expected to be available in the Fall. Hitachi currently offers the Microdrive in capacities ranging from 340MB to 1GB.

The company said the new drive will use ultra-miniaturized components, including a new read-write head that is half the size of its predecessor and results in a 40-percent decrease in the height at which the head travels above the disk platter. Hitachi said this feature is analogous to a Boeing 747 airplane flying one millimeter above the surface of the earth. The Microdrive's new head technology, called the femto slider head, is so small that it is equivalent in size to a grain of table salt.

According to Hitachi, its engineers have also drastically increased the tracks per inch to accommodate the Microdrive's areal density of more than 60 billion bits of data per square inch. The areal density of the 4GB Microdrive is made possible by using a new five-layer version of Hitachi's "Pixie Dust" media technology. Taking a three-atom-thick layer of the element ruthenium, a precious metal similar to platinum, and sandwiching it between three magnetic layers achieve pixie Dust. Technically referred to as antiferromagnetically coupled media, the ruthenium/magnetic layers enable data recording at ultra-high densities while maintaining data integrity.