Maxtor Corp has come powering back into the leadership position in the super-high capacity small form factor disk drive business with a 1.8 drive – configured as a plug-in PCMCIA Type III card device – which stores a phenomenal 105Mb. The capacity is achieved by squeezing two platters into the 0.4 thick credit card-sized device; it weighs 2.5 oz. The MXL-105-III features an advanced patented security system with password protection to prevent unauthorised users from accessing stored data. The drive is designed to withstand 100 Gs operating shock and 300 Gs non-operating shock, and the drive dissipates less than 2W in read-write mode, falling to as little as 25mW in standby or sleep mode. It costs $500 in evaluation quantities, now, and volume production is set for next quarter.
