microdrive
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Microdrive
An ultra-miniature hard disk from Hitachi Global Systems. The Microdrive was introduced by IBM in 1998 and acquired by Hitachi in 2002. It contains a single disk platter the size of an American...
Dictionary
Definition: Microdrive
An ultra-miniature hard disk from Hitachi Global Systems. The Microdrive was introduced by IBM in 1998 and acquired by Hitachi in 2002. It contains a single disk platter the size of an American quarter that holds up to 8GB. Using one or two GMR heads, the entire mechanism is built into a Type II CompactFlash form factor.
Size Matters
The tiny elements inside such a small drive offer an advantage. Because the actuator has 50 times less inertia than one used in a larger drive, it can ramp up to full speed in half a second. As a result, the drive can stop spinning when data are not being accessed, which conserves power in handheld devices. See actuator and CompactFlash.
The Microdrive
A marvel of electromechanical technology, the Microdrive platter stops rotating to conserve power and can ramp up to full speed in half a second.
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Additional Results
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IBM to ship 4GB microdrive
Big Blue unveils tiny hard drive made by Hitachi, targeting laptop users.
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Toshiba to get into microdrives
As the mini-mass-storage market marches on, Toshiba gets set to unveil a hard drive that's about the same size as a quarter. The debut will come at next month's Consumer Electronics Show.
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IBM slashes price of tiny Microdrive
Big Blue is trimming the price of its one-inch hard drive by nearly a third. The company says the price cut is due to the popularity of the Microdrive, which is cheaper per megabyte than...
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IBM 1 GB Microdrive
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