Just as you wouldn’t hire a fledgling firm to handle a high-end, family function flush with Kodak moments, neither would corporate America hand over its critical communications services to an unproven outsider.

But all that has changed dramatically with the last several years of telecom turmoil, a far tighter focus on cost reduction and avoidance, and the rapid rise of future IP-focused providers willing to spare users the pain of technology transitions.

As a result, the migration to hosted IP services is well underway, with VoIP largely responsible for the evolution of a market with sorely needed business brawn that offers more than just reduced communications costs.

The Migration to Hosted IP Services

With little exception, all businesses purchase some form of voice services. In this manner, VoIP represents not a new service but rather a replacement of an existing system. This is a key point in understanding not only the market potential but also the competitive landscape.

An early benefit of VoIP has been cost savings, and this remains a primary driver for VoIP adoption. If service providers are going to turn VoIP into a growth opportunity, it will require creating a migration path from trunking and integrated access solutions focused on cost savings toward feature rich platforms that provide a distinct advantage over current circuit-switched capabilities.

For most Tier 1/Tier 2 service providers, including RBOCs, IXCs and CLECs, VoIP services do not represent a new revenue stream but rather a replacement for circuit-switched local and/or long-distance voice. With the exception of service providers using VoIP to enter the voice market, and service providers serving enterprises (mostly SMEs via UNE-P), it is harder to justify the deployment of new services when a significant amount of resources have been used to deploy a circuit-switched architecture.

This represents a challenge for the industry to define and successfully market value-added VoIP applications for which customers are willing to pay. These applications might include worker mobility, wireless/wireline integration, unified messaging, number portability, collaboration and conferencing. (See figure 1).

Laggards and Leaders

Stratecast Partners recognizes that because of these factors a number of service providers have taken a conservative approach to the deployment of VoIP services, particularly network-based, hosted services. However, VoIP is the direction in which the market is heading, and those service providers that continue to drag their feet will be left behind.

Long term, the majority of businesses will utilize some form of IP-based equipment and/or services for their voice communications. Those service providers that have deployed or are currently deploying the necessary infrastructure to offer VoIP services will be best positioned for success long term, even if it results in the short-term cannibalization of existing, higher-revenue services.

There is no disputing the fact that the transition from circuit-switched to IP is happening within the business and residential markets. For businesses, there are a number of options to explore as they move down the migration path toward a converged IP environment.

While a number of service providers jumped into the market with fully hosted VoIP service offerings, we are now beginning to see providers developing a suite of offerings that provide businesses with a migration strategy. Having a migration plan that allows businesses to adopt different levels of IP voice capabilities takes into account a variety of factors including existing investments, quality and security concerns, site specifications, and number and location of offices within the business.

Migration Path to Hosted VoIP

While full VoIP solutions, hosted or customer premises, are ideally suited for greenfield sites, the value proposition becomes slightly more challenging for those businesses that have significant investment in existing PBXs or key systems, and corresponding handsets. In these instances, providing customers with an entry point through IP integrated access or trunking services is the first step toward full IP migration. This provides an entry point into a customer to help solve a key requirement: reduction of telecom expenses.

Integrated Access

IP integrated access, similar to a TDM-based integrated access solution, allows enterprises to carry voice and data traffic over the same connection. (See figure 2). Two key differences are the ability to offer lower overall costs through IP and to provide dynamically allocated bandwidth. IP integrated access represents basic circuit-switched line replacement, providing businesses with lower bills for local, long-distance, and toll-free phone service, while at the same time enabling them to continue utilizing an existing phone system and handsets. The service is implemented through an integrated access device or router placed at the customer premises.

Infrastructure means the difference between successful technology implementation and eternal Alpha stage qualification. One of the enabling technologies significant to the disk drive industry was the integrated disk controller, which brought disk drives to desktop systems in the early ’80s. Sherri Besser, director of marketing for Western Digital, shared a few thoughts on this with Mark Ferelli.

How did that project come about? We had a lot of chips–about a 10-chip set. And we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we integrated all these functions into a single device?” Which we did–and that became the 1010 controller. We were just building chips at the time, and then a customer said: “We need a reference platform to show us how to integrate your chips onto boards.” So we supplied them with a reference platform. And they said, “This is really cool.

Can we just buy your reference platform?” That’s how we got into the controller board business.

What was the greatest technological challenge in developing this? Getting all of these things to work together in a LSI device was very challenging

Who were some of the early customers for the integrated controller? Digital Equipment Corporation was a huge customer of ours. Basically, they helped drive the controller as a product. They were our biggest customer. And then, of course, we had Wang. Some ancient customers include Commodore and Atari.

How was the integrated controller received? Phenomenally well. Western Digital started hugely growing after the introduction of that chip. We basically had that chip and then we had the floppy disk controller as well.

So you sort of grew with the desktop then didn’t you? We sure did.

And you have that continuing with the Caviar series today, right? Yes. In fact, I don’t know if you know this but Western Digital helped develop the IDE interface. So it was Western Digital, CDC, and Compaq. And the three of us got together and designed what the connector interface from the IDE drive looked like and how it worked.

Were the three companies able to work together without a lot of political grief? Amazingly well. And it became the standard for the industry. Standards were harder to settle on in those days. That was the other thing that we did. When we came up with this, we didn’t charge royalty fees or licensing or anything. We wanted it to be an open standard so that everybody could use it.

And now you’ve seen it progress from IDE to EIDE and then into ATA and SATA. Where do you go from here controller-wise? That’s a good question. As you know, we use outside houses that design our controller chips. We take their technology and integrate it into our hard disk drives. And basically the question after this is going to be, “What comes next in the SATA arena?” And obviously it’s SATA II and 300 gigabits per second.

IS APPLE Computer’s iPod the greatest consumer product of our time? At minimum, it’s an undeniable success. Over 20 million units have been sold since its launch in 2001. It has managed to cross social and demographic barriers–with every one from soccer morns to Wall Street executives sporting white ear buds. The portable audio player has created an entire economy of accessories and imitators, single-handedly grabbing the music industry by the ear and pulling it into tomorrow. The iPod has become the icon of cool, and every entrepreneur should pay attention.

Jeremy Horwitz, editor in chief of iLounge, a leading online iPod authority, says entrepreneurs can take away three critical lessons from the iPod. First, he says, “Timing and execution are everything. Being first in an emerging market is neither as important nor as lucrative as designing the right products and services to cater to second- and third-stage growth.”

Michael Gartenberg, analyst at Jupitermedia Corp., says a lot of experts were initially skeptical of the iPod’s success because it was late into the market. Horwitz adds, however, that it was the first player to marry substantial storage capacity with great looks, small size and simple controls.

The second lesson, says Horwitz: “A smart company can command a premium for successfully blending off-the-shelf technologies into a new and useful product.” Essentially, the iPod is a portable hard drive (in the Shuffle and Nano models, a flash drive) hidden inside a simple and beautiful enclosure, accessed through intuitive menus, buttons and a scroll wheel. “Separately, these parts were forgettable, but together they became unforgettable,” says Horwitz.

The third lesson is Apple’s approach to pricing. “Instead of creating a good product and knocking down the price until everyone could afford it,” says Horwitz, ‘Apple has sold stripped-down versions at lower price points and hoped demand would follow.” This strategy helped create Apple’s bestselling music player, the iPod Mini.

While useful, these lessons don’t wholly explain the iPod phenomenon. Leading up to the release of the first iPod, audiophiles were cramming their PC hard drives full of music. This enabled listeners to develop long lists of songs, but once they stepped outside, the music stopped playing. Apple recognized the demand for complete portability and offered the first device that would put an entire music library into one’s pocket. This concept was much more revolutionary than the Walkman or Discman, which only made new formats portable. The iPod changed the rules, just how revolutionary was it? Well, if you were to change the engine in your car, you’d still drive it the same way. But if you could make it fly, you’d have a transportation revolution. Making music fly is no easy task, but as Gartenberg proclaims, “Apple is not afraid to be bold.”

It’s a boldness that even the most daring entrepreneur would hesitate to emulate. Would you dump your bestselling item? That’s what Apple did with the Mini, to make room for the Nano. Why drop the Mini? Because the Nano is smaller, offers better functionality (color screen and flash drive), and keeps what works. The same can be said about Apple’s latest venture, the video iPod–it’s a logical evolution.

What’s next? Apple, notoriously tight-lipped, refused to comment; however, Horwitz ventures a guess. He believes consumers can expect a redesign of the full-size iPod, optional Bluetooth add-on and an “iPod sport” model, which he says is long overdue.

Telematics still promises to add marketable content to the vehicle but all involved seem to be waiting for a breakthrough that will drive the cost of the systems down out of the lofty luxury segments and make it more applicable to the less-expensive high volume segments.

Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) may just have come up with one solution.

MELCO has developed a software program that greatly reduces the time and cost of developing and customizing navigation systems. The program called Victoria (which stands for Vehicle Information and Communications Terminal using Object-oriented Implementation Architecture) was designed three years ago and is extensively used on MELCO equipped vehicles in Japan.

Michael P. Antrim, Executive Account Manager for Audio/Video & Communications, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, says that Victoria can cut from six months to a year out of the development time that it takes to write a navigation system program.

Antrim says that a navigation software program can cost up to a million dollars because of the high volume of man hours required to program the system. If major revisions are needed, Victoria could easily save the customer a half a million dollars.

Antrim says that the level of software required to program a navigation system is very complicated.

“There’s a lot more user interface that goes on — different menus and screens that have to be created. This is all above and beyond the algorithms that have to be written to decide how to calculate the route.”

Antrim says that once you develop the algorithms, they’re done.

“The problem is that every time you get a new customer, the HMI (Human Machine Interface) part of it has to be rewritten. It’s a huge block of software.”

Each customer wants the functions and design of the system to be unique.

“Early on we realized that every time someone wanted a new system, we we’re going to have to spend thousands of man hours rewriting all of this software,” Antrim says. In the past, simple things, like changing the color of directional arrows, required a complete rewriting of the software program.

When changes are made using Victoria, every part of the software that’s affected is automatically updated. Antrim says that changes can be made in real time and some changes can be made in seconds.

“For us it was a very powerful tool,” Antrim adds, “because instead of spending six months to a year writing software before the customer sees anything, we can be there the next day, or we can even be sitting there with them doing it.”

What makes Victoria successful is the way the software is organized.

Victoria separates the existing navigation program into modules. The object-oriented programming sets parameters for specific parts of the program. From these parameters, the software is written. For instance, when programming is written for all streets, the street objects are rolled into the map objects. None of the modules are interrelated with the other layers of the software. If changes need to be made to the street objects, then only that module needs to be rewritten.

Victoria runs in Microsoft Windows on any ordinary personal computer and simulates the user interface on the screen allowing you to make changes easily. Once all changes are made, Victoria writes usable programs.

“When it comes out,” Antrim says, “it’s coded and can be directly used.”

Victoria took two years to develop, but Antrim says that MELCO began utilizing the system even before it was done.

“We were about a half to two-thirds done when we started using it.”

The Volvo S80 was the first program to utilize Victoria. Volvo’s system is unique in that the screen pops up out of the center of the IP, neatiy tucking away when not in use. It also has steering wheel controls for entering destinations into the computer.

Antrim says that the program has become an important advantage when quoting projects because people with navigation experience know that the software is complicated and that their engineers are going to be responsible for it.

“They’re pleased to see this software and know that they can get what they want.”

Engineers have also taken to this Windows based application. Antrim has noticed that engineers tend to make a lot more changes then they would have in the past.

Updates are easily made even after the system has been installed in the vehicle by anyone who has the software loaded to a disc.

“Periodically, people need to update their maps,” Antrim says. “We can put the software updates on the same disc with the map updates. When the disc is installed, the system recognizes a new level and downloads it.”

Antrim says that with other systems, changes would require many man hours.

Antrim points out that the Victoria system doesn’t only apply to navigation.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Tuesday announced that it has begun shipping its latest generation of high-capacity 2.5-in. disk drives for notebook computer systems. The two new drive models use Hitachi’s advanced disk drive technologies to achieve areal densities of more than 6 billion bits of data per square inch, resulting in total storage capacities of 10 Gigabytes (GB) and 6.49 GB in packages about the size of an audio cassette. The areal densities of both new drive models are greater than any other commercially available disk drive and represent more than a 60 percent increase in data density compared to Hitachi’s previous generation of 2.5-in. disk drives. The highest capacity model, the 10 GB DK229A-10 drive, has an areal density of 6.29 Gb/in2, compared to the 3.9 Gb/in2 areal density of Hitachi drives introduced last year. The DK229A-10 hard drive can store more than two full-length DVD-quality motion pictures, with room to spare for a PC operating system and applications. In fact, the tiny 10 GB drive can store as much data as a 1,650 ft. high stack of double-spaced typed pages. The new drives continue Hitachi’s highly successful transition to Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) heads and EPRML (Enhanced Partial Response Maximum Likelihood) read channel technology, used in all 2.5-in. hard drives introduced by Hitachi since early 1998. The company is a leader in development and manufacturing of advanced technologies throughout its 2.5-in and 3.5-in hard drive product lines, building on its 30-year history of product development for mainframe-class storage systems and internal customer requirements. This experience has fueled a doubling and redoubling of sales volumes in the last few years, as Hitachi broadened its scope from proprietary disk drives to include standard 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch models. “As one of the first companies to ship notebook hard drives with GMR heads, Hitachi has gained the experience to push storage density to record levels,” said Gary Galusha, vice president of hard disk drive sales and marketing for Hitachi America’s Computer Division, Storage Products Group. “These new high-end drives expand on Hitachi’s commitment to provide a complete range of 2.5-in. drives to meet the capacity and performance requirements of notebook manufacturers and end-users.” Both of the new 2.5-in. drive models have a 4,200 RPM disc spin rate, internal data transfer rates from 10.0 - 16.6 MB/s, and the maximum drive to system data transfer rate is 33 MB/s (Ultra-DMA) using the ATA-4 interface. The drives incorporate a high-speed 512 kB data buffer, have average read seek times of just 12 ms, and a 7.1 ms latency. With three disk platters and six read/write heads, the 10 GB DK229A-10 drive has an areal density of 6.29 Gb/in2, is only 12.7 mm high, and weighs just 130 grams. The 6.49 GB DK-239A-65 drive, with an areal density of 6.15 Gb/in2, uses only two disk platters, is 9.5 mm high, and weighs only 99 grams. OEM samples of the drives have begun shipping, and production shipments are scheduled to begin in the current calendar quarter. These Hitachi drives will soon be available in high-performance notebook computers sold by leading U.S. manufacturers. The Computer Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. sells high-capacity, high-performance hard disk drives, CD-ROM, and DVD drives through its Storage Products Group. Hard disk drive products include 2.5-in. IDE drives in capacities ranging from 2.16 GB to 10 GB for notebook computers, and very high-performance 3.5-in. SCSI and Fibre Channel drives in capacities of 9.1 GB to 36.8 GB for computer workstation and storage server applications. Hitachi also sells the world’s fastest 3.5″ SCSI and Fibre Channel disk drive, a 9.1 GB drive with a 12,000 rpm spin rate, for ultra high end applications. Hitachi America, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan, markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and semiconductor products, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout the U.S. Additional information is available at Hitachi America’s web site at http://www.hitachi.com/storage. Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world’s leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1997 (ended March 31, 1998) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($63.8 billion). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment.

With 20 mV forward voltage and operating voltage of 3-36 V, PowerPath(TM) LTC4414 permits low-loss OR-ing of multiple input dc power sources. Device enables switchover between multiple batteries or charging of multiple batteries from single charger. It includes reverse battery, overcurrent, and MOSFET protection circuitry. Ultra low 30 [micro]A quiescent current is independent of load current. Housed in 8-pin MSOP package, unit operates from -40 to +125[degrees]C.

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MILPITAS, CA - August 17, 2005 - Linear Technology Corporation introduces the LTC4414, a robust “ideal diode” PowerPath controller for driving large PFETs with substantial gate capacitance. The LTC4414 permits low-loss OR-ing of multiple input DC power sources. Its 20mV forward voltage is at least 10x lower than that of a Schottky diode. As a result, the device increases efficiency by an order of magnitude, due to much lower power loss and less self-heating, in systems requiring automatic switching or load sharing between power sources. The LTC4414 is guaranteed to meet performance specifications over a wide range of user conditions including an ambient temperature range of -40[degrees]C to 125[degrees]C and operating voltage range of 3V to 36V. The LTC4414 also provides reverse battery, overcurrent and MOSFET protection circuitry in a small MSOP package. In addition, the device offers a digital control input and an open-drain status output pin to simplify interfacing to a microcontroller. Applications include systems that typically take power from multiple input sources, including high current power path switches, uninterruptible power supplies, backup battery systems, logic-controlled power switches and automotive and industrial systems.

Multiple LTC4414 devices can be used to enable switchover between multiple batteries or charging of multiple batteries from a single charger. The LTC4414 status pin (STAT) can be used to control a second P-channel MOSFET power switch so that both Schottky diodes are eliminated from the diode-OR circuit. The IC’s ultra low 30uA quiescent current is independent of the load current. In addition, the LTC4414 utilizes a strong gate drive for gate turn-on and turn-off times of 600us and 20us, respectively.

The LTC4414 is offered in an 8-lead MSOP package. The 1,000-piece price starts at $1.85 each.

Summary of Features: LTC4414

Designed Specifically to Drive Large QGPFETs

Very Low Power Loss Replacement for Power Supply ORing Diodes

3.5V to 36V Voltage Range

-40[degrees]C to +125[degrees]C Operating Temperature Range

Minimal External Components (Single Input & Output Capacitors)

Automatic Switching or Load Sharing Between DC Power Sources

Low Quiescent Current (30uA)

Reverse Battery Protection

MOSFET Gate Protection Clamp

Status Output (STAT pin) Conducting Input Source

On/Off & Status Control (CTL) for Manual or Microcontroller Interface

Space-Saving 8-Lead MSOP Package

Company Background

Linear Technology Corporation was founded in 1981 as a manufacturer of high performance linear integrated circuits. Linear Technology products include high performance amplifiers, comparators, voltage references, monolithic filters, linear regulators, DC-DC converters, battery chargers, data converters, communications interface circuits, RF signal conditioning circuits, and many other analog functions. Applications for Linear Technology’s high performance circuits include telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products such as optical switches, notebook and desktop computers, computer peripherals, video/multimedia, industrial instrumentation, security monitoring devices, high-end consumer products such as digital cameras and MP3 players, complex medical devices, automotive electronics, factory automation, process control, and military and space systems.

AL ASAD, Iraq — With the digital age upon us, information is slowly moving away from paper and toward the computer screen. Miniature hard drives, referred to as “thumb drives,” have become the new rage among business professionals and personal users alike.

Suitably named, the drives are about the size of a person’s thumb, able to store large amounts of information in an incredibly small amount of space. This capability has allowed the average person to store various types of data that otherwise would be a hassle to maintain.

Service members deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom are no exception. Troops are able to use this technology to save family pictures, journal entries, work files and more, all of which is able to fit in the palm of their hand.

“With the drive, I no longer have to keep paper copies of everything,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd class Joseph L. Entrekin, aviation physiology technician, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “I can keep my work and important data with me at all times.”

Transporting information from one workstation to the other is also a useful feature used prominently with the thumb drives.

“I use it to store lectures I give to different units on base,” said Entrekin, a 30-year-old native of Washington Court House, Ohio. “Before I got it, I had to carry a laptop to my meetings, or burn a compact disk. Now all I need is this little drive.”

Thumb drives use a technology called the Universal Serial Bus (USB). They can plug into nearly any computer or device that has a USB port, giving users the ability to copy and save files at a quick rate.

“It’s saved me a lot of time,” said Entrekin. “It’s been a lifesaver and made my job a lot easier.”

Thumb drives are available in different memory sizes, many able to hold more information than a CD.

“[CDs] scratch easily and can only be used once,” said Entrekin. “These drives can be used over and over and you never have to worry about them getting scratched.”

With all of their capabilities, thumb drives are swiftly creating a medium for troops to save memories of their experiences.

“I save all my pictures on my drive,” said 24 year-old Falls City, Neb., native Pfc. Joey W. Schuetz, airframe mechanic, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “I’ll check my e-mail from the Internet cafe and copy the pictures over so that I can look at them whenever I want to.”

Seeing pictures of family and friends can help build morale among troops who have been deployed for long periods of time.

“Being able to save pictures on my drive has really paid off,” said Schuetz. “It’s absolutely worth its weight in gold.”

Maxtor Corporation’s two additions to its 5400RPM DiamondMax product lines include the DiamondMax 60 and the DiamondMax VL30. The hard disk drives meet the capacity, performance, and cost requirements of value, mainstream, and performance storage segments. Available this month, these drives are in qualification at major OEMs.

The DiamondMax 60 is a four-disk design that provides up to 60GB of storage and is a solution for consumer PCs and consumer Audio/Video (AV) applications. The DiamondMax VL30 offers up to 30GB of storage capacity and extends the cost mechanics and electronics of Maxtor’s DiamondMax VL20 product line introduced last fall. Both products incorporate the Maxtor Silent Store technology, making them ideal for consumer AV and other noise-sensitive applications. In addition, these disk drives support UDMA 66MB/sec buffer-to-host data transfer rates and can be updated to UDMA 100 once that standard is released.

“Storage-intensive applications are becoming important in the marketplace, as reflected in the growth in our shipments of three and four-disk configurations,” said Mike Cannon, president and CEO of Maxtor. “The combination of areal density and our four-disk design distinguishes [the company] as a provider of solutions for our customers’ desktop PC systems. The 60GB capacity point of the DiamondMax 60 also makes it ideal for non-PC applications that require storage, including consumer AV systems and Network Attached Storage products such as our MaxAttach server appliance.”

In the hard drive business, time is short. It’s an arms war out there and the combatants are competing in many areas– capacity, performance, acoustics (practically a non-issue), price (at the low end), and bragging rights. Bragging rights go to the company with the latest in a series of firsts–first to market, first with the current top in areal density, first with a new low in acoustic output, and even first with proprietary drive diagnostics can earn a competitive advantage, all other things being equal.

On March 10, Maxtor briefed selected press on a new series of drives with the unprecedented per-disk capacity of 15.3GB. Three days later, on March 13, Quantum announced its own 15GB per platter drive.

Both companies claim to be first. Both companies were shipping sample units to OEM customers in March with plans to ship production units to OEMs in April. On April 3, Western Digital weighed in with a series of hard drives based on 15.3GB per platter. They didn’t claim to be first.

Does it really matter who is first to announce? First to ship? First to ship in volume? First to [ldots] what?

By the time you read this, it’s a practical certainty that most drive makers who haven’t announced their 15GB/platter drives will be getting close to making such announcements. It’s also easy to predict that drive makers will be pushing towards their first 22.5 (or so) GB/platter drives. We may be seeing drives with capacities of 20GB/platter (or 10GB/surface) because the industry (and customers) likes round numbers and because a round number target may be easier to reach than 22.5GB/platter.

Where high performance hard drives are often running at 10,000RPM and sometimes even higher, the new 15GB/platter drives run at 5,400RMP or lower. Where high performance drives are offered in SCSI and, in some cases, with native Fibre Channel interfaces, the best that these 15GB drives deliver is ATA66.

These new drives were designed and targeted for the low cost computer market, rather than for high-end workstations or servers. While they aren’t priced for the sub-$700 market with Maxtor’s 60GB drive carrying a suggested retail price of $329, Western Digital’s 45GB drive priced at $299, and Quantum’s 30GB drive priced at $259, it should be fairly clear that these drives are designed for midrange computers or for affordable capacity upgrades. Both Western Digital and Maxtor implemented their designs in 5400 RPM, a long proven technology. By slowing down the motors, the drive is given more time to read or write to any specific location on the platter. In a given instant, the heads have access to a larger portion of the disc. By increasing the areal density of the platters, while increasing the amount of time these denser areas can be accessed by the heads, higher per platter densities became possible.

Maxtor’s two new drives offer an interesting set of choices–high capacity and higher performance in its DiamondMax 60 and a much lower price point with somewhat lower performance in its DiamondMax VL3O. The DiamondMax 60 is a 4 platter drive that delivers 61GB storage capacity. A 2MB buffer (large for most hard drives) enables transfer rates of 40MB/sec. The DiamondMax VL3O is a 30GB drive that has a 512KB buffer. With a suggested price of $169, the VL3O may find its way into many mid-range systems. For many users, a 30GB upgrade for about $150 may make more sense than paying twice as much for capacity that the user doesn’t expect to use.

Western Digital’s WD Caviar 15.3GB per platter drives will also feature 2MB buffers. A variety of models, ranging from a 7.5GB version that uses only one surface to a 45GB version that uses both sides of three platters will be offered by Western Digital.

Quantum has taken the speed drop one step further, spinning its platters at 4400RPM. By further slowing the platter, reading and writing at higher densities may have been even easier for Quantum to accomplish than it was for either Maxtor or Western Digital, which stayed at 5400RPM.

Quantum’s lct15 drives will feature 512Kb buffers. The drives will be offered in capacities of 7.5GB, 15GB, 20.4GB, and 30GB versions.

An additional benefit was also claimed by all three manufacturers–improved acoustics. The slower drives can be expected to produce less noise than their whirling dervish relatives spinning at 7200RPM or higher. Additionally, technologies developed to further reduce sound output help to make these drives very quiet.

In addition, because the data on the platters is so dense, head movement (a major contributor of drive noise) may be more limited than it is on less dense platters. Maxtor has taken the acoustic issue a step further by offering versions of the drive in “Quiet” mode–an option made available to the OEM customer. Maxtor DiamondMax drives running in quiet mode score 2%-3% lower on benchmark tests than do the standard version of the drives.

In addition to reducing some of the drive costs by allowing speed reductions, the move towards somewhat lower performing, high capacity platters also enabled other cost reductions. For example, when compared to last year’s 7.5GB/platter drives, the amount of platters and heads required to store the same amount of data has been halved. The cost of platters and heads are a significant part of the cost of a drive.

Although promising high reliability, and there’s little reason to doubt that these somewhat simpler (fewer moving parts) drives will deliver high reliability, a number of issues may need to be considered. First, it may be worthwhile to question the wisdom of putting so much data on a single spindle. If a drive fails, the user stands to lose a tremendous amount of data. Even if backed up onto a DDS4 drive (not one that most users of these 15GB/spindle drives would use), restoring a 60GB drive can take two or three tapes and many hours to restore.

Further, some users may be concerned with drive performance. Locating a file on a surface that contains 7.5GB of data may take longer to seek than would data spread across many higher performance drives.

Additionally, the question of how to partition the drives, if at all, and what kinds of data can be used to fill the drives may also be considered.

Is there an optimal partition size? Is drive performance better if partitions are kept small than if a smaller number of partitions are created? What is the performance impact of using a single 60GB drive versus two 30GB or four 15GB partitions? These are a few of the issues that should be considered when installing or upgrading to these higher capacity drives.

The higher capacities of CD-ROM drives may force a different way that consumers will think about data storage. For example, a 61GB drive can conceivably store the contents of 100CDs, uncompressed, and always available for immediate playback. When compressed to MP3 format, many hundreds of CDs can be stored onto such a drive.

Similarly, the most frequently used CD-ROMs can also be stored onto a hard drive. When stored along with any necessary installation codes, a user’s most frequently used applications can be stored for easy retrieval in case they must ever be re-installed.

In some ways, the growth of hard drive capacities can be considered somewhat analogous to changes in the car business. Two decades ago, a two-sided disc with a whopping 360KB capacity replaced a 5.25-inch floppy drive with 170KB capacity. This was followed with a 1.2MB floppy disk and the introduction of a 2MB hard drive. A 10MB drive was followed by a 20MB drive and the capacity race was on. The early days may be thought of as cars with no trunks, followed by Volkswagens with tiny trunks in the front of the car.

As drives grew in size, eventually reaching the GB range, car trunks finally became full-sized. Today’s 60GB drives may be something like that of a 20 foot UHaul truck–lots of capacity and, for many, questions relating to how to use it. The inevitable move towards even higher density low performance drives and the eventual availability of these higher capacities in higher performance drives will make things even more interesting.

Toshiba is thinking big when it comes to little hard drives.

The company, which has made a name for itself supplying miniature hard drives for notebooks and music players, on Thursday acquired Panasonic Shikoku Electronics’ HDD (hard disk drive) design center in Fremont, Calif. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Toshiba Corp. will turn to the design center, which had performed work for it on a contract basis for more than two years, to help bolster its in-house design resources for future generations of hard drives that are less expensive and that offer higher capacities.

The group of about 50 engineers may also assist Toshiba customers, including PC makers and consumer electronics companies, in building the drives into their products, ultimately boosting demand for the tiny storage devices, said Scott Maccabe, general manager of Toshiba’s Storage Device Division, part of Toshiba America Information Systems, Toshiba’s U.S. unit.

“From a bigger picture perspective, Toshiba is absolutely committed to driving and leading the small form factor [hard drive] space. That race is getting more aggressive, and we have limited resources available to us in Japan. The prior relationship we had with this organization [and] their proven skill set fit into our total business equation,” Maccabe said.

The use of miniature drives—Toshiba’s measure between 0.85 inches and 1.8 inches, versus typical 2.5-inch notebook drives and 3.5-inch desktop drives—has exploded of late.

Their smaller sizes have helped PC makers design smaller, thinner notebooks for corporate travelers and also brought new types of devices.

Read more here about Toshiba recalling more than 25 of its notebook models after a problem with a memory module.

One of the best-known uses of the miniature drives is in music players, such as Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.

However, Toshiba foresees business uses for the drives in cellular phones and even PDAs.

Its 0.85-inch, 4GB drive is being qualified for use in cellular phones, for example, promising to give handsets much higher data storage capacity for things like corporate e-mail or pictures. The drive is due out at midyear.

Aside from designing less costly, higher-capacity miniature drives, Toshiba also aims to add its PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording) technology to the mini-drive line, Maccabe said.

Its first PMR drive, a 1.8-inch model, is slated to ship later this quarter. The technology is expected to yield major increases in drive capacity over the next several years.

Hitachi and Fujitsu, meanwhile, have beefed up their respective 2.5-inch notebook drive lines.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies rolled out speedier 2.5-inch Travelstar 7K100 drives for notebooks.

The line adds 80GB and 100GB drives that rotate at 7,200 rpms, versus 5,400 rpms.

The faster rotational speed allows for quicker access to data, Hitachi said in a statement.

The company says that speed bump helps improve the speed at which Windows XP starts up, applications load and files copy over slower drives.