Samsung Powers up 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives Featuring PMR Technology, Industry-Leading Free-Fall Sensors and Increased Storage Capacity

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung Electronics Ltd., the worldwide digital consumer electronics and information technology forerunner, ratchets up the strength of its 2.5-inch hard disk drive offerings for notebook and enterprise computing applications with the introduction of the powerful new M80 SATA Series and M80 Series. Both series utilize advanced Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology, feature an optional industry leading free-fall sensors and offer increased storage capacity, now up to 160GB.

“The M80 SATA Series and M80 Series, armed with PMR technology, free-fall sensor capability and increased storage capacity work behind the senses to ensure users have all of the tools necessary for the most pleasurable computing experience possible.”

The M80 SATA Series features the 80GB HM080HI, the 120GB HM120II and 160GB HM160JI. The M80 Series includes the 80GB HM080HC, the 120GB HM120IC and the 160GB HM160JC(1).

The M80 SATA Series and M80 Series are Samsung’s first hard drives based on PMR technology. Unlike traditional longitudinal recording technology, which lays data bits end to end where they can flip and corrupt data on the disc, PMR technology places the data bits perpendicular to the disc, which reduces the corruption factor. In addition, by placing the data bits standing on end, more data can fit onto a disc, allowing for greater storage capacity. With PMG technology, users can fit up to 40,000 MP3 songs and 160 hours of video on a 160GB Drive.

Samsung’s newest 2.5-inch drives offer users increased damage risk protection by incorporating industry-leading free-fall sensors. Many notebook hard drives on the market today have an operating shock tolerance – the amount of shock the drive can take before damage – up to 325G. Samsung’s new drives with the free-fall sensor provide an industry-leading 700G of operating shock tolerance. Hard drives enabled with the free-fall sensor are better able to detect changes in acceleration caused by a freefall. The free-fall sensor parks the drive’s head on the ramp and turns the hard drive off, protecting it from damage caused in a fall. This offers a dramatic increase in reliability and resistance to hard drive damage caused in the event of a fall.

Unlike much of its competition, Samsung’s free-fall sensors are located on the hard drive, not the notebook’s motherboard. The added benefits of this on-board integration include faster response time in the event of all fall, an improvement in the quality of fall detection, and a smaller minimum fall detection rate of just 30cm.

“The rate of today’s mobile workforce and notebook PC users is rapidly growing like never before and Samsung is committed to providing the most advanced, technically sophisticated hard drive solutions available today,” said Albert Kim, National Sales Manger, Storage Systems for Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “The M80 SATA Series and M80 Series, armed with PMR technology, free-fall sensor capability and increased storage capacity work behind the senses to ensure users have all of the tools necessary for the most pleasurable computing experience possible.”

Targeted for mobile computing needs as well as enterprise applications, the M80 SATA Series and M80 Series feature a 8MB of onboard data cache and high performance 5,400rpm spindle speed. The new hard drives provide cutting-edge shock protection capability through an advanced mechanical platform and able-bodied cover design engineered to minimize the intensity of external shock transmitted to the most critical components of the drive.

Samsung’s latest 2.5-inch hard drive offers are equipped with the company’s Hybrid Latch System, a revolutionary new latch mechanism that eliminates unpleasant rattling noises and significantly reduces the clicking noise generated when a drive moves its heads on and off the disk according to the operating modes. The drive uses a Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor to achieve an industry-leading operating acoustic noise levels.

The M80 SATA Series and M80 Series feature 80GB formatted capacity per disk, Fluid Dynamic Bearing Spindle motor technology, ATA SMART feature set, ATA Automatic Acoustic Management, ATA Device Configuration overlay and Multi-Burst On-The-Fly Error Correction. Utilizing Samsung’s SilentSeek™ technology, the drives provide are among the quietest in the industry today.

For more information about Samsung’s Hard Disk Drive products, visit http://www.samsung.com.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2005 parent company sales of US$56.7 billion and net income of US$7.5 billion. Employing approximately 128,000 people in over 90 offices in 51 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones, and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com

(1) 1MB = 1,000,000 bytes / 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes.

(1) Actual accessible capacity may vary from advertised capacity due to formatting and partitioning of the hard drive, as well as due to your computer's operating system