WD Releases Scorpio Notebook Drives

May 23, 2007: Western Digital has announced its latest line of notebooks hard disk, the cavernous 250GB Scorpio SATA drive.

Using perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology, WD says the Scorpio is the highest capacity notebook drive currently on the market. Next to this, WD is also boasting quieter running, less power usage and cooler operating temperatures.

One unique Scorpio feature WD is keen to point out, is its IntelliSeek technology, which actively calculates an optimum seek speed to eliminate hasty actuator movements, cutting both noise and power consumption.

The company claims that with IntelliSeek, movement is controlled so the head reaches the next target sector just in time to read the next piece of information, rather than rapidly accelerating and waiting for the drive rotation to catch up. WD says this reduces power usage by more than 60 percent compared with standard drives.

According to IDC, the increasing use of PMR technology in notebook drives has seen average capacities grow at 32 percent for the past five years, while 2006’s shipment volumes of 2.5” drives will more than double by 2011.

WD is offering the Scorpio in capacities ranging from 40GB up to 250GB.

Comment on this story