The good news is that IBM Corp has launched Travelstar, the first disk drives to store more than 1G-bits of data per square inch – they store 1.3G-bits per square inch, the bad news is that the technology is used first in a 2.5 disk drive that stores a reported 2.16Gb. There is also a 1.08Gb version and Seagate Technology Inc already announced a 2.5 drive storing 2.5Gb at the end of February (CI No 2,861). The Travelstar drives are just under half an inch thick, thinner than the Seagates, which are 0.67 thick – the firm can only do 1.3Gb in half inch thickness – and samples are out now with volume in June. The company also launched the 3.5 Deskstar 3 drive storing 3.24Gb and 2.16Gb.
