Following the recent release of 500GB 2.5-inch drives from Seagate and Fujitsu, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has announced its newest addition to the Travelstar lineup, the 2.5-inch Travelstar 5K500.B drive.
Available in 120, 160, 250, 320, 400 and 500GB capacities, the new Travelstar 5K500.B features a SATA 3.0Gbps interface, an 8MB buffer, average seek time of 12ms and it spins at 5400RPM. The drive will feature an optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) and will also be available as an enhanced-availability (EA) version, named E5K500.B, which is designed for 24x7 operation.
New drives are "EcoTrac" branded, which means that it is halogen-free and features a read/write power specification of 1.4W. The regular Travelstar 5K500.B will start shipping in December, while the E5K500.B, or the 24x7 EA version, will be available sometime in Q1 2009.
