Toshiba Ships 26 Million Automotive-Grade Hard Drives

The Storage Products Business Unit of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced that a leading German luxury car manufacturer is now shipping its vehicles standard with Toshiba's MK2060GSC 200GB Serial ATA automotive hard disk drives (HDD), marking 26 million automotive-grade HDDs shipped. Toshiba has led innovation in the automotive sector since launching its first automotive-grade HDD in 2000, and is the leading vendor in the automotive storage market.

By 2016, more than 55 million people worldwide will have Internet access built into their vehicles, according to iSuppli Corp. Sophisticated navigation and entertainment systems, smartphone and tablet integration, and Internet connectivity are all features that consumers rely on to enhance their in-car experience, and these systems depend on reliable, shock-resistant HDDs to operate. Toshiba works in partnership with premier automotive manufacturers to provide best-in-class storage devices that can withstand severe road conditions, the growing quantities of data embedded in a vehicle's systems, and users' demands for constant connectivity to stream high-definition movies and update their navigation systems simultaneously.

"Cars are increasingly forming a key part of our connected ecosystem. It is essential they have the capacity to store all the data consumers want and need," said Joel Hagberg, vice president marketing, Toshiba Storage Products Business Unit. "As the automotive industry continues to develop a more integrated and connected driving experience, we will continue to partner with manufacturers to meet their specifications and provide the most innovative and effective storage solutions possible."

Launched two years ago, the MKxx60GSC 2.5-inch SATA-interface series can withstand extreme environments including temperature, shock and altitude variations while still providing seamless performance. Each drive is optimized to handle temperature variations of -22º to +185ºF. With aerodynamic technology in the magnetic head slider, the drive series can withstand altitudes up to 18,536 feet (higher than any city in the world), and withstands up to 3G (29.4m/s²) vibration tolerance during operation.

With 200GB of storage, the MKxx60GSC series is the largest capacity automotive-grade HDD available. The drive's 4,200 RPM speed offers high internal transfer rates of up to 665 Mb/s using an average seek time of 12ms. The drive also offers silent seek operation and uses the minimum amount of power for energy efficiency with no compromise on performance.