Hitachi to offer auto-encrypting hybrid notebook HDDs in 2007
We already knew Hitachi was planning to unveil 20GB Microdrives and perpendicular notebook drives in 2007, but now the HDD giant is one upping itself by adding some juicy details about next year's 2.5-inch hard drive roadmap. Aside from offering both 5400 and 7200RPM units "in the quarter-terabyte range," next year's Travelstar lineup will likely boast "hybrid" technology in order to conserve battery life, enable zippier bootup times / recovery from hibernation, and provide "greater reliability and higher performance" -- oh, and it's seemingly a requirement to rock Windows Vista Premium (on a laptop), too. Moreover, the firm is touting its "HDD-level encryption solution" as being "virtually impenetrable" (read: fuel for a hacker's fire) and it reportedly won't bog your machine down the way similar software-based security applications will; Hitachi's version "scrambles data using a password-generated key" as the data is written, and then descrambled with the key as it is retrieved using the highly-touted Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. Consumers can expect 7200RPM 200GB flavor to be available in "the first half" of 2007, while the larger (albeit slower) 5400RPM 250GB edition should land in notebooks before the year's end.
[Via CNET, thanks resource]
