Toshiba Reveals Hybrid HDD Research

Hybrid HDD - An HDD with a NAND Flash CacheNikkei Electronics published an article on May 22 detailing a May 17 briefing by Toshiba president Norio Sasaki. Mr. Sasaki told of the company’s plans to introduce a hybrid HDD (HHDD) in September of this year that is aimed at the Ultrabook market. The article notes that Toshiba is the only company that produces both NAND flash and HDDs, now that Samsung sold its HDD business to Seagate.

The article also says that Toshiba: “aims to become one of the top three companies in the HDD market in terms of market share.” The SSD Guy is forced to wonder at this comment, since there are only three HDD manufacturers in existence today: Toshiba, Western Digital, and Seagate.

The Seagate Momentus XT, the only HHDD commercially available today, has a z-height of 9.5mm, which makes it difficult to squeeze into an Ultrabook’s thin form facor.  This seems to have prevented current Ultrabooks from using the device.

The article appears also to explain that the integration of Toshiba’s NAND and HDD R&D teams is to be accelerated, but the quality of the translation could lead to another interpretation. Readers may want to read the article themselves (at the hotlink above) to come to their own conclusion.

A report: Are Hybrid Drives Finally Coming of Age? outlines the market potential of the hybrid HDD and details its inner workings and the reasons for its bright outlook. This report can be purchased for immediate download at the Objective Analysis website.

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