BIOS: Technology Means Business

As the demand for portable digital music and video grows, mobile device manufacturers will need ample storage capacities. Seagate’s new ST1.3 series offers 50 per cent more capacity in a 23 per cent smaller package for digital audio players, media players, mobile phones and more.

The newest member of the company’s product portfolio also consumes 30 per cent less power than Seagate’s current 1-inch hard drive, and offers a new optional drop sensor for increased robustness, delivering the features most requested by handheld device manufacturers. The ST1.3 series hard drive is also Seagate’s first drive utilising perpendicular technology in the 1-inch category.

By offering a whopping 12GB of storage in a smaller footprint, the ST1.3 Series HDD is a powerful solution for increasingly sophisticated media devices such as digital audio players, portable media players, and mobile phones. According to IDC, the worldwide mobile phone market is expected to grow 7 per cent in 2006 to 857.9 million units.

IDC forecasts that the worldwide converged mobile device market will reach 181 million units by the end of 2009 and worldwide portable multimedia player shipments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 95 per cent between 2005 and 2009.

The new ST1.3 Series hard drive delivers new features specifically targeted at mobile media consumers. The drive’s new size, 40x30x5mm, allows for more streamlined media players product designs and fits nicely into current clamshell and candy-bar style mobile handsets.

As part of its G-Force Protection feature set enabling skip-free, reliable media storage and playback, Seagate also includes an optional drop sensor. This will increase operational shock resistance 33 per cent up to 2000Gs, enabling the drive to survive a 1.5-meter drop onto hard concrete or ceramic surfaces when properly mounted in a handheld device, claims the company.

The ST1.3 Series hard drive also delivers 30 per cent greater power efficiency than previous models, enabling system designers and manufacturers greater choice in power supplies and system power-on hours. Additionally, Seagate’s unique Design Service Centers (DSC) provide dedicated design and integration support to help mobile device designers and manufacturers create innovative new consumer electronics products. DSC offers a variety of testing, integration and mechanical analysis services, to help customers design, innovate and deliver a new world of hard drive-capable entertainment.

Seagate’s ST1.3 Series differs from other hard drives because it is designed to compensate for the issues caused by such high-motion activities. The drive incorporates Seagate RunOn technology, which enables the drive to automatically keep the read heads on track while the device is in motion. Consequently, the RunOn technology can increase the reliability of a handheld consumer electronics device.

When many hard drive-based devices face the trauma of everyday use, the read/write heads remain over the media and a hard drop could lead to a microscopic dent on the internal components and can suffer additional damage if it’s still running when the device is dropped.

Seagate understands that accidents can happen with handheld gadgets, and has built the ST1.3 Series hard drive with G-Force Protection, which protects the hard drive against shock by sensing when the system is in a free-fall situation, moving the heads off the platter, and turning the motor off - all within 3/10 of a second. Thus, during the day-to-day mishaps of using your favorite portable device, no parts make contact with each other inside the drive.

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