Hitachi Ships the One-Terabyte Hard Drive

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) today announced that it has met its commitment to begin shipping the world’s first one-terabyte hard drive (HDD) to retail customers within the first quarter of 2007. The Deskstar 7K1000 began shipping to retailers and e-tailers in March 2007 with inventories reaching critical mass in April 2007. CDW is among the first organizations to make the terabyte hard drive available to customers. More information is located at www.cdw.com/storage.

“Hitachi’s terabyte-capacity drive offers organizations an affordable new option to accomplish these goals while helping them to respond to increasing data management requirements.”

Announced at CES 2007, the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive delivers superior performance and reliability, as well as leadership capacity, to meet the needs of consumers who want to create, share and store their digital information in ever increasing volume. At a suggested retail price of $399 (USD), colossal storage capacity is more affordable than ever before.

“Many small and mid-sized businesses are consolidating their storage environments to improve manageability and accelerate data backup and recovery,” said Tom Cahill, director of product management at CDW Corporation, a leading provider of technology products and services to businesses, government and education. “Hitachi’s terabyte-capacity drive offers organizations an affordable new option to accomplish these goals while helping them to respond to increasing data management requirements.”

The Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive delivers ultra-high capacity, which is well-suited for high-performance, gaming and media center PCs and external storage devices. It is built on the industry’s most reliable perpendicular magnetic recording technology, allowing Hitachi to extend capacity beyond that available in current products. The hard drive features a 3.0Gb/s Serial-ATA (SATA) interface and large 32 MB data buffer to provide the performance required for high-end PC applications.

“Delivering the one-terabyte hard drive this year is a monumental achievement not only for Hitachi and the hard drive industry, but also for the end user. Consumers’ desire to create and share digital entertainment is the primary accelerator for capacity and performance increases in desktop PC hard drives. We are proud of the strength of the Deskstar 7K1000 as it is designed to meet the requirements of PC enthusiasts,” said Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Leveraging a track record for reliability from previous-generation products, the Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive is built using a 5-platter design with relaxed areal density for greater reliability. To further ensure data integrity, the hard drive features a ramp load/unload design to increase shock protection and Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) to maintain a consistent fly-height during the read/write process.

Technical Specifications:

Deskstar 7K1000

1000/750 GB – SATA (GB = 1 billion bytes, accessible capacity may be less)

148 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density

1070 Mb/s max. media data rate

8.5 ms average seek time (excludes command overhead)

7,200 RPM, 4.17 ms average latency

Serial-ATA 3.0Gb/s

32 MB data buffer

26.1 mm in height (max)

700g in weight (max)

5/4 platters, 10/8 recording heads

300 G/1 ms pulse non-operating shock

9.0 (5 disk)/8.1 (4 disk) watt idle power

2.9 Bels typical idle acoustics

5-60 degrees C operating temperature

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is a storage technology leader, founded in 2003 through the combination of Hitachi’s and IBM’s hard disk drive businesses. Hitachi GST enables users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing high-value hard disk storage in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home.

With its legacy in hard drive invention, Hitachi GST led the industry in celebrating the storage technology’s golden anniversary in 2006. The hard drive has had a profound effect on the computing and consumer electronics industries after five decades of innovation. That heritage lives on at Hitachi GST today through products that define the standard for hard drive miniaturization, capacity, performance and reliability.

With approximately 33,000 employees worldwide, Hitachi GST offers a comprehensive range of hard drive products for desktop computers, high-performance servers, notebooks and consumer devices. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT)(TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.