Tokyo (Japan) - Fujitsu today announced the first 7200 rpm notebook hard drives that come with a 3.0 Gb/s Serial ATA 2.5 interface, as opposed to the widely available 1.5 Gb/s port.

The new MHW2 BJ series drives effectively double the maximum data throughput from 150 MB/s to 300 MB/s. According to the manufacturer, the platters of the drives, which are available in 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB capacities, spin with 7200 rpm and enable a read seek time of 10.5 ms and a write seek time of 12.5 ms.

Fujitsu said that the drives are targeted primarily at high-performance notebooks, which makes their relatively high power consumption of 5.5 watts during spin-up and 2.3 watts during read/write processes somewhat acceptable - typical 5400 rpm SATA 1.5 drives consume about 15-20% less power.

The MHW2 BJ series will be available on global basis at the end of May 2007, according to Fujitsu. The manufacturer expects to sell about 1.6 million units until the end of the year.

Both SATA 3.0 GB/s drives as well as 7200 rpm 2.5" drives are available from multiple sources in the market, while this specific combination, however, is unique to Fujitsu at this time. For example, Seagate and Hitachi are both offering 7200 rpm drives with up 160 GB capacity and SATA 1.5 Gb/s interfaces. Toshiba does not offer a 7200 rpm drive at this time, but has a 5400 rpm drive with SATA 3 Gb/s interface in its portfolio.