First 2.5-Inch HDD 5mm High by WD, Trying to Slow Down SSD

WD, a Western Digital company, is shipping a slim 2.5-inch, 5mm HDDs and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD), which are designed for integration into the slimmest devices and space-constrained computing environments.

With 500GB of storage capacity and models with high performance-enabling solid state hybrid drive technology, this slim product line helps to address the tradeoffs system designers often make between capacity, physical size and performance.

"With the launch of our new WD Blue 5mm ultra slim hard drives and our WD Black SSHD products, currently shipping to OEMs, WD is delivering to our customers a variety of solutions that maximize storage capacity and volumetric efficiency, as well as performance and system responsiveness, for consumers," said Matt Rutledge, VP of WD’s client computing business unit. "Our engineering team took a clean-sheet approach with 5mm to deliver an ultra-thin hard drive that enables a world of possibilities and applications for mobile computing and beyond."

WD designed the new WD Blue and WD Black 5mm drives to enable new levels of device portability. The new drives are aimed to increase internal storage capacity while enabling it to fit into smaller device slots. In addition, the slimmer and more portable the device, the more vulnerable the hard drive is to user-induced stress.

To battle this, WD has designed
key enablers to the 5mm form factor:

• Slim Form Factor – 5mm height with compact connector offers system designers a greater degree of chassis design freedom. This ultra-slim form factor reduces weight by up to 36% compared with a standard 9.5mm drive.
• Acoustics and Shock – Acoustics use technologies that reduce noise when the drive is active or idle. The Blue and Black drives deliver operation and non-operation shock specifications with 400G and 1000G, respectively.  
• Edge Card Technology – WD designed the connector and board utilizing cell phone miniaturization technology to maximize the mechanical sway space in the hard drive and ensure shock performance.
• Edge Card Connector – Blue 5mm hard drives also feature the first application of a new small form factor SFF-8784 edge connector. This new connector receives power from and interfaces with the host I/O bus via the SATA interface connector SFF-8784.
• StableTrac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations which enables consistently higher performance.
• Dual Stage Actuator – Enterprise dual stage actuators provide two actuators that improve positional accuracy over the data track(s). The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.

Price and Availability
Shipping to select industrial distributors and OEM customers in 500GB capacities, Blue 2.5-inch 5mm hard drives (model: WD5000MPCK) has a MSRP of $89. Blue 2.5-inch 5mm hard drives are covered by a two-year limited warranty. Black SSHD versions are shipping to OEM’s and integrators with both WD proprietary hybrid technology and industry standard SATA I/O technology.