Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

1.8 Inch Removable Hard Drives Coming

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-what-I'm-talking-about dept.

bedessen writes "According to an article at PCWorld.com, a new type of removable storage known as iVDR will be demonstrated at January's Consumer Electronics Show. The iVDR standard (backed by a consortium consisting of a number of manufacturers) describes a lightweight, compact, removable hard disk drive compatible with a wide range of applications from AV to PC devices. The products on display will come in 2.5" and 1.8" form factors with parallel and serial ATA interfaces. Capacity will start at 80GB for around $170, but manufacturers hope to drop this to under $80 and well as double the capacity by next quarter." Here's hopin'

8 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Just how useful is this going to be? by John+Jorsett · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The consortium plans to approach the movie industry soon and hopes to complete the standardization of its copy protection code by March, next year, Hioki said.

    In other words, "we're still working out how to cripple it in a Hollywood-approved way with DRM."

    1. Re:Just how useful is this going to be? by weave · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Amen. You have to wonder why these storage manufacturers are so willing to risk product failure and a hit to their own profits, to save some imaginary profit hit to some other industry and companies. What's in it for them? (discounting the fact that some of them own entertainment companies of course...)

  2. Yeah, I'll think I'll pass on this one... by weave · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From the article:

    One more hurdle to clear for iVDR in the use of consumer electronics is that of a copyright protection format. The consortium plans to approach the movie industry soon and hopes to complete the standardization of its copy protection code by March, next year, Hioki said.
  3. 1.8 inch removable hd's have existed for years by phr2 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    They're called PCMCIA drives and the older ones needed a type III slot. Toshiba makes a 5 GB one that fits in a type II slot now, and they make 1.8" embedded drives up to 20 GB that could fit in a type III slot except that their whole production is going to devices like iPod's. I hope they'll do a PCMCIA version soon.

    This PCWorld thing is about a drive in some weird bigger enclosure which seems pointless. They should just make higher capacity PCMCIA drives.

  4. IBM? by Karamchand · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Though I know that IBM has sold its consumer hard drive assets to Hitachi I still have to wonder why IBM is not a member of this consortium, since IBM has a very active and large research department.
    Wester Digital is also "missing"...

    Anyone who knows more?

  5. Who measured this thing? by medscaper · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the Article : The 1.8-inch iVDR will be slightly thinner than a 2.5-inch iVDR disk, which measures 5.2 inches wide by 3 inches deep by a half inch high.

    So who measured this thing? Hilary Rosen?

    "Yes, well we saw that it had the capacity to appear to be a 2.5 inch disk if used at full capacity and fitted to your pc with a Sawzall and a ballpeen hammer."

    --
    Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
  6. Sony Noticably Absent by spinozaq · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I see that Sony is absent from the list of members. One wonders whether they will ever use an industry standard storage in any of their products *cough* Compact Flash *cough*. It's almost ironic though, because they make massivly overpriced digital camaras that take standard computer media, floppies and CD-Rs. I'll like to beat a few sony execs will some memory sticks.

  7. Re:iPod? by Toraz+Chryx · · Score: 4, Informative

    iPods use 1.8" Toshiba disks