Samsung Electronics today introduced its new M80 SATA Series and M80 Series 2.5-inch hard disk drives. Both series utilize Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology, feature an optional free-fall sensors and offer increased storage capacity. Both the M80 SATA and M80 Series comes in 80GB, 120GB and 160GB sizes. 

Samsung’s newest 2.5-inch drives offer users increased damage risk protection by incorporating free-fall sensors, which feature a minimum fall detection rate of 30cm. Hard drives enabled with the sensor are able to detect changes in acceleration caused by a freefall, and park the drive’s head on the ramp and turns the hard drive off, protecting it from damage.

The M80 SATA and M80 Series feature an 8MB cache and a 5,400rpm spindle speed and comes equipped with the Hybrid Latch System, a mechanism that eliminates rattling noises and reduces the clicking noise generated when a drive moves its heads on and off the disk.

The M80 SATA and M80 Series are Samsung’s first hard drives based on PMR technology. Unlike traditional longitudinal recording technology, which lays data bits end to end where they can flip and corrupt data on the disc, PMR technology places the data bits perpendicular to the disc, which reduces the corruption factor. In addition, by placing the data bits standing on end, more data can fit onto a disc, allowing for greater storage capacity.

Other hard drive manufacturers have already made headway in the area of PMR technology. Seagate launched 2.5" drives with PMR back in January, and shipped the first 3.5" PMR drives three months later. In May, Hitachi joined the perpendicular ranks in mobile storage with the a new Travelstar. Fujitsu followed during late summer with its MHW2 BH hard drives, and Western Digital with its new Scorpio SATA drive.