Toshiba Corporation announced Thursdayit had developed the world's smallest hard disk drive (HDD).
The HDD's magnetic disk is as small as 0.85-inch in diameter (2centimeters). The company said it was the "first hard drive to deliver multi-gigabyte data storage to a sub-one-inch form factor."
The new drive, only a quarter the size of the current 1.8-inch ones, will have an initial capacity of 2 to 4 gigabyte, said the company.
Combining advantages of smaller size, high volume and low powerconsumption, the 0.85-inch drive will find way in a wide range of devices, including mobile phones, digital camcorders, palmtops, Toshiba said.
Toshiba plans to start sampling the new drive in summer of this year and begin mass production in autumn, with the initial monthlyproduction capacity of 200,000 to 300,000 units.