Toshiba today introduced a new line up of 1.8-inch HDDs with a maximum capacity of 320GB, the highest yet announced by the industry, targeted at thin and light mobile PCs and portable external hard disk drives.

The new series delivers three models in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, and will start mass production from December.

Improvement of the dual platter MK3233GSG family's perpendicular magnetic recording head and the disk's magnetic layer secure an areal density of 801Mbit/mm2 (516Gbpsi), the industry's highest for 1.8-inch HDDs. The new drives deliver highly efficient power consumption, high-level durability and quiet seek operation.

Equipped with a serial ATA interface (3.0Gbps), 5,400 RPM rotational speed and a large capacity 16MB buffer memory, Toshiba's MK3233GSG HDDs are ideal for notebook PC applications that require high storage capacity and high speed processing. The areal density improvement allows MK3233GSG to boost internal data transfer rates by 15% from the MK2529GSG, the company's earlier 250GB 1.8-inch HDD.

Capable of withstanding the demands of mobility, the drives tolerate up to 1,500Gs of non-operational shock and 500Gs of operational shock making the 1.8-inch form factor 50 and 25 per cent more durable than the most robust 2.5-inch HDDs.

The latest range of 1.8-inch drives launched today also includes the dual platter 250GB MK2533GSG and the single platter 160GB MK1633GSG. Toshiba also today announced the immediate availability of 120GB 1.8-inch MK1235GSL HDD. This low 5-millimeter profile drive operates at 4,200rpm and boasts ultra-low power consumption.

The new 250 and 320GB drives, the MK 2533GSG and MK3233GSG, cut acoustic noise during seek to 19dB, a 4dB decrease from the MK2529GSG, the top-end drive in Toshiba's previous generation of 5,400RPM 1.8-inch HDD.