Hitachi unveils 7mm Z-series ultrathin hard drives; replaces 9.5mm standard

Hitachi on Tuesday announced its Z-series of ultrathin hard drives, thus named after their 7-millimeter "Z" height.

In an endless parade of faster, higher capacity and smaller drives, Hitachi seeks to differentiate itself by rolling out the thinner drives across all of its lines -- in effect, replacing the standard 2.5-inch, 9.5mm tall drives with a new standard.

That means Travelstar and CinemaStar drives get the new height, in capacities of up to 320GB. The Z-series has common connectors and mounting points, so they can slip right into a 9.5mm slot.

The drives will appear in everything from laptops to tablets to DVRs to blade servers, where their thinner profile will no doubt help with cooling at scale. (And for the former, allow more space for a larger battery, a technology that hasn't quite kept up with the times.)

On the business side, the move is brilliant: with only one SKU, Hitachi saves all the way down the production line. It's a very Henry Ford-inspired way to go: any drive size you like, as long as it's 7mm.

You'd think the smaller drives cost more to manufacture, but Hitachi told me the production costs for the smaller drive are pretty much the same. So instead of offering a premium, ultraslim drive, Hitachi's just replacing all its existing 2.5-inch single-disk models with the thinner one.

Hitachi will continue to offer two-disk, 9.5mm 2.5-inch drives for high-capacity applications.

Here's the rundown:

Travelstar Z7K320 family: 7200 RPM, 7mm, 2.5-inch hard drives

• 16MB cache
• SATA 3Gb/sec interface
• For use in notebook PCs, ultraportables, netbooks and compact desktop systems
• Low power, halogen-free design
• 1.8 watts read/write power
• 0.8W low power idle
• 2.3 idle / 2.4 seek bels
• Self-encrypting
• Optional BDE
• Pre-Boot Authentication
• 160GB, 250GB, 320GB

Travelstar Z5K320 family: 7mm, 2.5-inch hard drive

• 5400 RPM
• 8MB cache
• SATA 3Gb/sec interface
• 1.6W read/write power
• 0.55W low power idle
• 1.9 idle / 2.0 seek bels
• Self-encrypting
• Optional BDE
• Pre-Boot Authentication
• 160GB, 250GB, 320GB

CinemaStar Z5K320 family: 7mm 2.5-inch drives for A/V streaming devices

• For set-top boxes, DVRs, portable video players, DVR-enabled TVs and video surveillance systems
• 5400 RPM
• 8MB cache
• SATA 3Gb/sec interface
• 1.9 idle / 2.0 seek bels

Qualification samples of the Travelstar Z5K320 family are now available; volume shipments will begin in July. Volume shipments of the Travelstar Z7K320 and the CinemaStar Z5K320 drive families will begin in August.