Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced that ARCHOS has integrated 1.8- and 2.5-inch Travelstar hard drives into its portfolio of handheld entertainment and storage products. The drives are currently shipping with the AV300, the world's first portable video player/recorder that enables users to record up to 160 hours of high quality television programming, depending on the size of the selected hard drive. ARCHOS is also currently shipping ARCDisk, the industry's smallest external 1.8-inch USB hard disk drive. ARCHOS' Gmini family of handheld digital audio players, scheduled for release in October 2003, will also feature 1.8- and 2.5-inch Hitachi Travelstar drives. The Gmini 120 and 220 are the industry's first MP3 players that allow users to upgrade device functionality by downloading plug-ins from the ARCHOS website. Users of these ARCHOS devices benefit from the Travelstar's combination of portability, capacity and high performance.
The Hitachi Travelstar portfolio of mobile hard drives addresses customer needs ranging from standard notebook implementation to emerging applications such as automotive and other consumer digital devices. With Travelstar, Hitachi offers the broadest range of high performance drives from 4200 to 7200 RPM, the broadest capacity points ranging from 20 to 80 GB and various form factors including 1.8- and 2.5-inch.