Hybrid drives arrive

Seagate Technology has begun to ship its Momentus 5400 PSD, its first hybrid hard disk for use in notebook PCs, says Digitimes.

The Momentus 5400 PSD will have a 5 400rpm spindle speed, 256MB built-in flash memory and will be compatible with notebooks with a 2.5-inch drive bay. Three capacities, 80GB, 120GB and 160GB, will be available, according to information from Seagate`s Web site.

The hybrid model features support by Microsoft Windows Vista ReadyDrive, and offers fast boot times, a SATA 1.5Gbps interface and perpendicular recording, according to the company.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is delivering its new energy-efficient desktop hard disk drive, says Welt Online.

The Deskstar P7K500 is up to 59% more power-efficient than comparable 250GB hard drives in its class, based on available specifications.

Through a 40% power reduction, Hitachi GST has delivered idle power utilisation of 3.6-watts on the 250GB capacity model and 4.8-watts on models with capacities of 320GB or greater.

AMD has announced two add-in cards and a new external combo tuner in its TV Wonder series, which promise to equip a PC with the capability of a high-definition digital video recorder, says TG Daily.

AMD is unveiling models that are introducing several new features and are answering the market trend towards different usage models between desktop PCs and notebooks.

The company offers the ATI TV Wonder 600 and the Wonder 650 Combo as PCI/PCIe models. The 600 is positioned as a new entry-level model for a suggested retail price of $99 and provides digital PVR features, support for OTA DTV, NTSC, DVD playback and authoring and video conversion.