Samsung today announced that it is shipping Compact Flash card-sized hard disk drives (HDD) for use in mobile consumer devices. Initially available in 30GB and 40GB models, Samsung’s Spinpoint A1 hard disks offer significantly higher storage capacity than conventional memory cards, high shock resistance, and low power consumption.

Samsung’s suite of advanced hard disk drives will be on display at CES 2008 in its Semiconductor Product Showcase, #N236, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, 2nd Floor.

"Samsung is leading the blockbuster demand for portable consumer devices that offer greater capacities for storing information, music, videos and games," said Andy Higginbotham, director of hard drive sales and marketing, Samsung Semiconductor. "This new drive will fit within the dimensions of the already widely adopted Compact Flash type II card form factor."

Samsung’s compact A1 hard drive is just 42.8 x 36.4 x 5 mm in size. It delivers more than 3 times the capacity of 1-inch HDDs currently on the market while adding only 23 percent more volume. These powerful features make Samsung’s new A1 hard drives the ideal choice for advanced mobile devices that need a significant step up in storage capacity while still keeping size to a minimum.

Samsung’s A1 hard drive offers improved battery life and the highest available resistance to shock. Samsung’s proprietary free-fall sensor instantly detects that a fall is taking place and parks the head in a protective ramp before the impact in order to protect itself. The drive also employs Samsung’s rotational vibration sensor to protect the data from heavy vibrations in noisy environments.

Samsung’s A1 drive is offered with PATA/CEATA/USB interface options and features a 3600rpm rotation speed, a 2MB buffer memory, shock resistance of up to 650G, a two-second drive-ready time, and nearly inaudible acoustic noise.

Samsung’s A-Series is currently shipping with an MSRP of $199.

Source: Samsung press release