2.5TB Hard Drives By January 2010

TDK is on track to facilitate the release of a 620GB 2.5-inch and a 2.5TB 3.5-inch hard disk drive by January 2010., according to Register Hardware.

In a presentation to financial analysts TDK outlined their roadmap for hard disk drive (HDD) read/write heads.


The roadmap shows a jump to 320GB/platter 2.5-inch drive read heads with such heads in qualification with HDD suppliers now, mass production starting this month and full mass production by December this year.

Turning to desktop drives, TDK is making heads for 500GB/platter drives now and has 640GB/platter heads currently in qualification by its OEMs. It sees a slightly later but faster ramp to mass production, starting in November this year and complete by the end of January, 2010.

These advances will allow the production of a 2.5TB, 4-platter, 3.5-inch capacity drive with the possibility of a 3.2TB, 5-platter model in the future.