First to market with perpendicular recording technology

Hard drive vendor Seagate is releasing what it has claimed is the first 3.5-inch hard drive which is based on perpendicular recording technology.

The outfit has already released a 2.5 inch drive using the technology, and now the 3.5 inch version known as the 'Cheetah 15K.5' will double the capacity and be 30 per cent faster, according to the firm.

The new drive will be available with 300 GB (four platters), 147 GB (two platters) and 73 GB (one platter) models. Seagate it will be the first hard drive to break the 100 MB/s data transfer barrier. The drives will be available from June.