HGST Launches Endurastar J4K320 Automotive Hard Drive
The HGST Endurastar J4K320 is a family of single-platter hard drives designed for automotive use.
HGST has launched its 6th generation of Endurastar automotive hard drives, the J4K320, which is rated to operate at altitudes of up to 5,500 meters, has a temperature range of -30° C to 85° C and a shock tolerance of 300 G (2 ms). The drives also include the company's patented Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) technology which "can compensate the head/media distance variations caused by altitude and temperature changes."
The J4K320 family features a 9.5 mm 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface, a single physical platter with two data heads, and is available in capacities of 80 GB, 100 GB, 200 GB, 250 GB and 320 GB.
"HGST has been working with the automotive industry for nearly two decades to develop the right hard drive products for use in cars," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. "These onboard systems integrate a combination of entertainment (video, audio, radio), navigation, connectivity, security services, diagnosis and much more to help provide a seamless in-car user experience. The combination of these services, especially navigation, requires reliable and durable storage for the supporting application software, as well as the needed capacity to store end-user content. As our sixth generation automotive drive, our new Endurastar J4K320 drive family continues to deliver on the needed requirements, and provides long-term data stability and reliability for the automotive market."
The Endurastar J4L320 is currently shipping, and further information is available at its product page.
Agreed, if I was in a position to get a car with an internal HDD (which may be a fairly common thing in 10 years with self driving vehicles) then I would demand a high quality SSD. A HDD may last in a car environment for a good 2-5 years, but a typical car is going to last ~3x that. Even with SSD tech I would demand that they use a standard replaceable style drive like SATA or mSATA because even a high end SSD is not going to last 15 years in a daily driver.
I mean, how many people would scrap their car after 7 years when the HDD/SSD drive dies? A 7 year old car with over 100,000mi on it is going to start having other repair issues, so a $2,000+ bill to replace the head unit, or the HDD in it, would make it much easier to justify purchasing a new(er) vehicle.
Yes, it is an external HDD with it's own case, with its own anti-vibration stuff inside, and it is likely kept on a padded floor, or an even more padded seat. A HDD used inside of a car is going to be in a much more confined space, with a much more direct connection with the frame of the vehicle.
I mean heck, it is hard to get a reliable drive from any HDD company these days without the requirements of being in a vehicle.
What about a used car? A good regular 4 cylinder car with a full maintenance history and good engineering can be had for $3k, at least, that's ~ the KBB on my '99 Civic
@bloodymurder, some people have huge music collections, others like to watch movies in the center screen when parked. It'd be nice to have a large capacity hard drive, and there are no downsides.