Guinness's World's Smallest Hard Drive Record

ketbra writes "CNN reports that Toshiba has received the Guinness World record for the smallest disk drive for their new 0.85-inch HDD. (Covered on Slashdot a while back) The technology editor from Guiness made the comment that "Toshiba's innovation means that I could soon hold more information in my watch than I could on my desktop computer just a few years ago". "

Impressive!

[nycsubway]

I remember reading Guiness Book of World records as a kid, 20 years ago, and things have changed a lot. I'm sure the technology section has expanded considerably. Plus, thats a really cool hard drive. its so tiny!

Re:Guiness has no idea....

[betelgeuse-4]

I think largest screen and fastest processor (in MIPS not Hz) are already listed.

article text

[Anonymous Coward]

Guinness record for world's smallest disk drive
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EST (1623 GMT)

Toshiba is expected to sell the tiny drive later this year.

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Tuesday that Guinness World Records had certified its stamp-sized hard disk drives (HDDs) as the smallest in the world.

The electronics conglomerate's 0.85-inch HDDs, unveiled in January, have storage capacity of up to four gigabytes and will be used in products such as cell phones and digital camcorders.

Toshiba, whose 1.8-inch HDDs are used in Apple Computer Inc's hot-selling iPod digital music players, for example, aims to start producing the 0.85-inch HDDs by the end of 2004.

"Toshiba's innovation means that I could soon hold more information in my watch than I could on my desktop computer just a few years ago," said David Hawksett, science and technology editor at Guinness World Records.

Re:Good for mp3 players

[Pumpernickle]

They have miniature iPods [apple.com] now, that are quite a bit smaller than the big ones. I don't think it's the storage medium on the iPods that's the limiting factor, a lot of it seems to be the interface - there's a minimum amount of control surface, screen, etc. that people need to comfortably use the things.

Re:Good for mp3 players

[rraiford]

uhh they do. iPod Mini uses microdrives

Capacity...2 - 4 GB

[braddock]

The article didn't mention the drive's capacity. Apparently Toshiba claims the initial drive version will be 2-4GB, to be released in 2005. Whether their prototype is already functional at that capacity I don't know.

Braddock Gaskill

Re:What a let down...

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

Ta an ceart agat.

Sorry. Forgot my Gaelic roots.

(for others not versed in Irish history - St. Patrick is actually St. Paidrig in the local Gaelic language, so the abbreviation should be St. Paddy not St. Patty)

As they are the sponsors...

[Tmack]

and original creators of the book itself, I would think so...

Info.. [guinnessworldrecords.com]

Tm

seek times & a book recomendation

[morcheeba]

Actually, seek times tend to improve the smaller the disk. It's less mass to move, over a shorter distance. Seagate claims [yahoo.com] their new 2.5" 10k RPM server-class drive has a 15% faster seek speed than 3.5" drives.

The book The Innovator's Dilemma [businessweek.com] has a great case study of hard drives, from 14", 8", 5.25", 3.5", 2.5", and beyond and explains why the advantages that each smaller size offers (and why virtually none of the companies that are best at one size manage to sell well into the next smaller size). It's a great book.

Re:Guiness has no idea....

[Shakrai]

I think largest screen and fastest processor (in MIPS not Hz) are already listed.

Hmm -- if they are they aren't included on the webpage [guinnessworldrecords.com]. But then the webpage states that it only includes a "fraction" of the 40,000 records included in the database so there you have it. Too bad they don't let you access everything and merely use the page as a plug for the book.

Interestingly enough here is the fastest DSP [guinnessworldrecords.com] and here is the biggest TV set [guinnessworldrecords.com]. Those were the most interesting results out of my search for screen size and processors.

Re:Guiness has no idea....

[betelgeuse-4]

From the 2002 GBRW UK edition p.168 (I don't know if all countries have the same content):

Fastest computer: IBM's RS/6000 ASCI white, capable of 12 trillion calculations per second, with 6Tb memory and 160Tb storage memory

Most powerful PDA: Compaq H3360 iPaq Pocket PC