Hitachi Announces HD Storage Boost

[MacRumors]

Hitachi announced today that 20GB 2.5cm hard drives will be commercially available by the end of next year.

This represents a "density breakthrough" which will allow much higher capacities than today's drive technology. Current micro-drives, such as the ones used in the iPod Mini, max out at 6GB. This new "perpendicular" recording technology would allow for a 20GB iPod Mini in 2007. Capacity of such micro drives are expected to reach 60GB within 5-7 years.

The technology, of course, will also bring increased capacity desktop drives which could max out at one terabyte.

[GodBless]

Sure they are small and large in file storage capacity, but what about speed? It would be cool to have a portable version of Mac OS X that I could take around and boot on any mac anywhere.

[javabear90]

Now That is cool. So does this mean 20 gig ipod minis and microdrives for cameras?

[Blue Velvet]

This looks promising for the future... even more space to store stuff. Wonder if they'll be available with standard interfaces (i.e. SATA)?

Anyone have any experience with Hitachi drives at the moment?

[GodBless]

Originally Posted by CoreForce

2 years away who cares anyway?

Yeah, I thought technology was supposed to be twice as good every 9 months on average. I guess that makes this just an average announcement.

[narco]

So how long until a 60GB hard drive for the mini? I want one of those.

Fishes,
narco.

[kretzy]

Sounds awesome!!! They're getting smaller and smaller all the time, before we know it they'll be microscopic!

[JoeG4]

It's nice to hear about progress, but a whole year and a half lead time is annoying.

[rockandrule]

New Hitachi 60GB mini's combined with the battery tech of Toshiba = some bad ass iPods.

Sorry guys, I still love my mini.

[cb911]

i guess this is good news because now we can just sit back and watch all the 20GB iPod Mini mockups come through while we all fantasize and drool over our own visions of a 20GB Mini.

[DeSnousa]

Imagine the prices, they can only go lower

[atari1356]

I'm still using a 5 gig original iPod, and wouldn't replace it with anything that's out right now... but a 20 gig Mini would be very tempting.

[wPod]

20 Gig iPod mini with a color screen and 802.11g to connect to the airport express!!! im in!!!! to bad i have to wait a few years. .. . man a few years from now they will have everything, i bet by then they will have G5 PBs. . . . heh sorry!

[GodBless]

20 GB iVideo with 802.11g along with Tiger and Hardware updates on Tuesday? The iVideo sounds like a good response to the PSP.

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by javabear90

Now That is cool. So does this mean 20 gig ipod minis and microdrives for cameras?

I think we're going to start seeing more camcorders with built-in drives. There are a few on the market right now, but a camcorder that can record an hour of 640x480 SD footage without a tape would move a lot of people over from DV.

Someone out there who does video tell me: How big a harddrive would a camcorder need to record an hour of SD? HD?

[cube]

I want iPod mini with EDGE. Then I can stream on the train.

[Lacero]

Originally Posted by max_altitude

Sounds awesome!!! They're getting smaller and smaller all the time, before we know it they'll be microscopic!

It's an inverse relationship. Porn collections will get larger and larger. Great news for porn aficionados everywhere!

[srobert]

I wonder what Apple will do to make the Mini's bigger brother more appealing when you'll be able to fit your whole music library on a color screen mini.

[johnnyjibbs]

So it's a given that we'll have 20GB iPod minis in 2007. Meanwhile, the iPod will get ever greater capacities. I guess video will be around by then to make use of the sapce.

[Diatribe]

Originally Posted by narco

So how long until a 60GB hard drive for the mini? I want one of those.

Fishes,
narco.

5-7 years, as written in the news post. The post you actually read, right?

[Object-X]

I bet they will put this in a redesigned iPod. If they stuff it in a Mini what will they put in the Photo or the regular one?

[Blue Velvet]

Originally Posted by Lacero

Great news for porn aficionados everywhere!

Is that what they're calling themselves now? I thought there was another much shorter word that meant the same thing...

And of course, it's not porn. Any self-repecting connoisseur would call it erotica.

[Diatribe]

The thing I really want is a 300GB notebook HD and a 150GB iPod.
Because then I could go Lossless only. That would be nice.
I guess with this announcement these two are not far away. 2 years max. Niiiiiiice

[srobert]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

So it's a given that we'll have 20GB iPod minis in 2007. Meanwhile, the iPod will get ever greater capacities. I guess video will be around by then to make use of the sapce.

Provided that mr. Jobs changes his mind and decides to embrace video on iPod.

I wouldn't care about being able to watch video on an iPod. It would be great though to output it to a TV (S-Video out?). PVR in your pocket. The movie industry would try to prevent such an iPod to ever see the day.

[Rod Rod]

Originally Posted by Porchland

I think we're going to start seeing more camcorders with built-in drives. There are a few on the market right now, but a camcorder that can record an hour of 640x480 SD footage without a tape would move a lot of people over from DV.

Someone out there who does video tell me: How big a harddrive would a camcorder need to record an hour of SD? HD?

One hour of uncompressed SD is around 60-90GB (depending on a couple of factors such as bit depth)
One hour of DV is about 13GB.
One hour of HDV 1080i is about 13GB.
One hour of HDV 720p is about 8 or 9GB.
One hour of H.264 HD would be somewhere around 2-4GB (H.264 camcorders are not that far away).