Toshiba's new 7mm high hybrid drive is suited to improve response time and performance in ultra-thin notebooks PCs

TOKYO-Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced the launch of the slim, 7mm high MQ01ABFH hybrid drive1) series. Equipped with Toshiba's NAND flash memory and available in 500GB2) and 320GB capacities, the MQ01ABFH series is the Toshiba's first 7mm hybrid drive family. In combination with the previously announced 1TB2) and 750GB MQ01ABDH series 9.5mm models, these new drives offer customers a wider selection of 2.5-inch hybrid drives. Their thin 7mm design is ideal for ultra-thin light notebook PCs. Samples will be available from June 28.

Drawing on its knowledge and experience in NAND flash, Toshiba has optimized the NAND flash performance into a tiered-storage approach that uses the speed of the DRAM and NAND components with high-capacity rotating media. The hybrid drive delivers SSD-like performance without any dependence on external drivers or assistance from the host system. Improving its self-learning, caching algorithms which manages data stored in the NAND flash storage for the fastest responsiveness - the PCMark™ Vantage Score3) for the MQ01ABF050H is approximately 20,000, against a typical score of 5,000 for standard HDDs4).

The MQ01ABFH series underwent multiple performance and compatibility tests with a variety of host PCs in addition to the PCMark™ Vantage test, including high-end notebook PCs, thin and light PCs, and ultra-thins. The drives proved to be fully compatible with 175 PC systems. For further information about the compatibility tests, please follow the following link.

http://www.semicon.toshiba.co.jp/eng/product/storage/innovation/hybrid_drive/index.html#Compatibility

Notes

  • 1) Toshiba defines hybrid drive as an HDD with NAND flash memory inside. It is also known as Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD).
  • 2) One Terabyte (1 TB) is 1012 =1,000,000,000,000 bytes, One Gigabyte (1 GB) is 109 =1,000,000,000 bytes and One Megabyte (1 MB) is 106 =1,000,000 bytes. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1TB = 240= 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, 1GB = 230= 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1MB = 220= 1,048,576 bytes, and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system.
  • 3) PCMark™ is a trademark of Futuremark Corporation and the established industry method for measuring hybrid drive read/write performance and responsiveness.
  • 4) Data for conventional Toshiba HDD MQ01ABD series.

Information in this document, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the announcement but is subject to change without prior notice.

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