Maxtor Pioneers 1.8-inch PCMCIA Type II Hard Disk

During the evolution of the PCMCIA standard, Type I cards (3.3 mm depth) were intended to support memory expansion cards, Type II cards (5 mm depth) for I/O and fax modems, and Type III (10.5 mm depth) for magnetic storage and other “bulky” devices.

Most portable computers are now available with a Type II PCMCIA slot, however Type III slots are generally reserved for mid- to high-priced devices. This has tended to limit the additional storage options for owners of these devices. Not so any longer—in the near future anyway.

Maxtor recently announced that it has developed the first 1.8-inch hard disk drives for use with the standard 5 mm PCMCIA Type II slot. The two devices, dubbed MobileMax Lite 85 and MobileMax Lite 121 feature storage capacities of 85 and 121 MB respectively.

Not only has Maxtor shrunk the form factor for the drives, it has also introduced the first hard disk to operate at 3.3 Volts, freeing the hard disk from its traditional role of spoiler in an otherwise low power mobile system. Traditional hard disk systems operate at 5 Volts, placing a drain on the batteries especially when used with a disk intensive system such as Microsoft Windows.

Maxtor relies on a set of innovative features, including a DSP-based electronics architecture, to shrink the size of the device to match the Type II form factor. By doing this, Maxtor was able to reduce the chip count by 50 percent to a total of five chips.

Maxtor will make OEM evaluation units of the MobileMax Lite 85 and 121 available during the first quarter of 1995 for $449 and $499 respectively. Maxtor expects volume production to begin in the second quarter of 1995.

Maxtor Corporation
211 River Oaks Parkway
San Jose, CA 95134
(408) 432-1700
(408) 432-4510 (fax)