Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., has released the new Travelstar 7K320, a 2.5-inch 320 GB mobile hard disk drive that uses 25 percent less power, provides 60 percent more storage capacity than the Travelstar 7200 model it is replacing, and can run applications up to 12 percent faster than the Travelstar 7200.

The Travelstar 7K320 spins at speeds of up to 7,200 RPM and is available in drives with capacities ranging from 80GB to 320GB. It will retail starting at US$220 and will be shipping before the end of May. This new mobile drive can be used in notebook PCs, gaming devices, blade servers, video surveillance systems, compact desktop systems and small video devices.  It can store up to 80 hours of HD video, 320 hours of standard video, 114 movies and 80,000 MP3s that are approximately 4 minutes long.  The 7K320 includes a serial ATA interface with 3 Gbit/second data transfer speeds and also offers a bulk data encryption security option.

The Hitachi spokesperson did not identify manufacturers who plan to embed Travelstar 7K320 drive into their systems,  but indicated that those products should be available by early in Q3.