The MK3207MAT was an ultra-thin 2.5-inch magnetic disk unit (8.45 millimeters thick) and featured the world’s first giant magneto-resistive (GMR) head. Toshiba began shipping samples of the unit in January 1998.
As the data volumes computers handled skyrocketed, magnetic disk units for notebooks had to provide even more storage capacity. To meet this demand, Toshiba used GMR heads to raise the recording density per square inch to about 3 Gbits — more than 50 percent denser than previous models — which gave a total recording capacity of 3.2 GB. Toshiba also shaved the unit’s weight down to just 95 grams in consideration of notebook installations.
In May 1998, Toshiba began full production of the MK6409MAV, a 12.5-millimeter-profile magnetic disk unit with 6.4 GB of storage that used the same GMR head.
| Model name | MK3207MAT | MK6409MAV |
|---|---|---|
| Recording capacity | 3.2GB | 6.4GB |
| Average seek time | 13ms | |
| Data transfer speeds | 33.3MB/s （Ultra DMA Mode-2） |
|
| Rotational speed | 4,200rpm | |
| Buffer size | 512KB | |
| Interface | ATA-3 | ATA-4 |
| External dimensions [mm] | 70 x 100 x 8.45 (w x d x h) | 70 x 100 x 12.5 (w x d x h) |
| Weight | 95 grams | 150 grams |
| Energy consumption efficiency | 0.00028W/MB | 0.00014W/MB |
