Western Digital shipping 80 GB-Per-Platter technology that yields 250 GB hard drives

This new hard drive technology adds 25% capacity to Western Digital's popular WD Caviar® 200 GB hard drive, which was based on 67 GB-per-platter technology.

WD Caviar 7,200 RPM 80 GB-per-platter hard drives began shipping last month. WD Caviar 80-per-platter GB hard drives are offered in single and multi-platter designs in capacities of 80, 120, 160, 200 and 250 GB. By leveraging its 80 GB-per-platter technology to 83 GB-per-platter and using three platters, Western Digital is able to achieve 250 GB capacity. Shipment of the multi-platter hard drives, including the flagship WD Caviar 250 GB, is anticipated next month.

WD Caviar Special Edition hard drives equipped with 80 GB-per-platter technology will also be available next month. These drives feature an 8 MB cache size, which is four times larger than the industry standard 2 MB cache size and are covered under warranty for a three-year period.

"Western Digital continues to offer the high performance and large capacity demanded by its customers by offering a quarter terabyte of storage in its successful WD Caviar product," said Dave Reinsel, research manager at market research firm IDC. "The shift to 80 GB-per-platter technology is an important transition for the hard drive industry that will have a long-lasting impact and provide end users a broad range of capacities to meet their storage needs."

"Maintaining its focused approach of providing the highest quality, performance and reliability to its customers, Western Digital is delivering 80 GB-per-platter technology now that the platform meets these important standards," said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president of marketing at Western Digital. "Eighty GB-per-platter, combined with our unique expertise in high capacity 7,200 RPM hard drives, is now the best technology to bring to market the next-generation biggest and fastest hard drives."