Hitachi cools mobile drives

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has come out with a new 2.5-inch diameter drive, the Travelstar 4K120 that consumes less power than ordinary drives. As a result, notebooks can get about 20 minutes more life out of a battery charge, said Becky Smith, vice president of marketing.

The drive cuts power consumption by, among other tricks, slowing down during lull times, similar to what notebook chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices do. Samsungearlier this year showed off a drive that cuts power consumption by having the data first load to flash memory. Hard drives, which have a motor that spins the platters, are one of the large consumers of powers in PCs.

The new drives will go into mass production this month. Hitachi already makes a 3.5-inch drive for desktop with similar characteristics.