HDD players reportedly to push development of 5mm designs for ultrabook

Ocean Chen, Joseph Tsai,14 August 2012
Hard disc drive (HDD) players have reportedly split some of their hybrid storage solutions R&D resources to work on 5mm HDDs in order to create a product that can satisfy demand for a light and thin hard drive industrial design for ultrabooks, while still gaining an edge to compete against solid state drives (SSD), according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Currently, most HDD players are still in the planning stage for their 5mm HDD products and there is so far still not yet a 5mm HDD product being manufactured; however, the sources pointed out that the major issues for the realization of 5mm HDD will be on the stabilization of the device's read and write actions as well as the increased cost generated from shrinking the size.

With hybrid HDDs gradually becoming a popular solution for ultrabook products and expected to be adopted in many mid-range and entry-level models in the future, the sources expect the HDD market will see fierce hybrid HDD competition in the first quarter of 2013 and accelerate the standardization of the device.

As for 5mm HDDs, the sources expect the solution may still need some times before actually showing up in the retail channel.