Toshiba updates automobile hard drive line

Toshiba has released a new line of hard disk drives designed for use in automotive systems.

The company said that the new 2.5 inch drives would be used for storage on built-in navigational and entertainment systems in automobiles as well as embedded industrial systems.

Sporting a capacity of 100 or 200GB, the 4,200 RPM serial ATA drives are set to begin production in August.

Toshiba said that it had specially designed the drives to handle the abuse brought by operating inside a moving vehicle. The drives have been specially built to withstand high temperatures of up to 85 degrees centigrade and have been designed to withstand vibrations.

Additionally, the drives will operate with a 12 millisecond seek time and a quieter 23dB noise level. In comparison to the previous line of 80GB automotive drives, the new models will offer a 78 per cent improvement in transfer speeds and a 25 per cent reduction in seek times. The drives will also be the first automotive drives from the company to be produced without environmentally dangerous halogens.

The new drives will target what has become a growing market for embedded automotive systems and carmakers have expanded the use of on-board entertainment systems and expand navigational systems.