One of the main drawbacks in automotive applications of optical data storage media is the high level of vibrations when the vehicle is moving. This issue is well known by people playing their preferred music on a car stereo CD player.

Recently, the use of hard disk drives (HDD) for automotive applications is increasing more and more, taking the place of optical media. An example is the use of this mass storage memory on car navigation systems, but again vibrations is a big issue in this field.

Toshiba today announced the latest additions to its lineup of 2.5" HDDs for automotive applications: a 80GB drive and a 40GB drive, both featuring perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). The drives will be used in such applications as car navigation systems.

Alongside higher storage, the drives offer numerous enhancements. Lighter moving parts, a highly rigid enclosure, and the vibration resistance achieved by a highly accurate head positioning system, takes overall, vibration resistance to 29.4m/s² (5-50Hz), a full 50% improvement over current automotive models. Moreover, the new drives can operate at up to 5,500m above sea level.

In addition to map data information for car navigation, the new HDD can be used in on-board entertainment systems, to store high capacity movie, digital image and music files.

Some more details can be found at Toshiba.