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Cheap New 1 Inch HDD Holds 1.5GB

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the here-we-go dept.

SlightlyMadman writes "Cornice, Inc. has unveiled a new alternative for small devices requiring large amounts of storage. With an expected OEM price of about $100, it blows the smaller microdrive out of the water (at least until this fall). The days of cramming bulky 2.5" disks into mp3 players may finally be over."

6 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. The days of cramming 2.5" disks was over in 2001 by KFury · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Toshiba 1.8" drives used in ipods made huge waves in portable MP3 designs. Granted, 1" is even better, but let's not forget the leaders in the field.

    --

    Kevin Fox
  2. Don't forget, in Canada... by Steve+Cowan · · Score: 4, Informative

    If that HD is packaged in an MP3 player we will have to pay a huge levy on that gigabyte.

  3. Video iPod... by Keighvin · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's called a Multimedia Jukebox - http://www.archos.com

    20GB, plays MP3 and DivX simple profile (even with a video out port for TV), also records to MP3 audio or MPEG4/DivX video. Got one, it's a lot of fun.

    Also available on ThinkGeek.com, or modded on eBay up to 60GB+

    --
    Any spoon would be too big.
  4. Re:Forget MP3 Players by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can't wait to have these start appearing in all sorts of Palm devices. The processors and screens of these guys have long caught up to the PC's of min 90's, but the sotrage capacities have been hovering around late 80's levels with the micro-drives being too large to fit in.

    Yes, but battery capacity hasnt. When alcohol powercells come in, maybe, but until then, no way. Adding a hard disk to a palm device would bring the length of time between charges down to daily, not acceptable. :(

  5. Re:Affordable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, considering 1GB CompactFlash cards are around $200, $100 for 1.5GB is pretty cheap for ultra-small storage.

  6. Re:It's fine IF.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Performance is microdrive-comparable - over 3Mbytes/second generally. Spinup is usually 1 second. Power use is similar to microdrive, but it's 3.3v only.

    It *does* give an ATAPI interface, but the point is the drive is embedded - you plonk the drive controller chip (which has pins that form an ATAPI interface to your own circuitry) onto the board with the rest of your circuitry, and a teensy twenty-something way connector connects to the drive mechanicals.

    This way, the drive mech is smaller, you don't need bulky CF plugs and sockets, and it's integrated deeply into your system where you can optimise the design for power, speed, whatever.

    If you check out recent press releases/rumour sites, you'll notice that Samsung announced a 1.5GB digital camcorder at CES, and Rio showed a 1.5GB minature MP3 player at CES. Noone else makes a 1.5GB drive that I know of, so I guess this is what's inside those two toys.