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Microdrive is a registered trademark for miniature, 1-inch hard disks produced by IBM and Hitachi. These rotational media storage devices were designed to fit in CompactFlash (CF) Type II slots. The release of similar drives by other makers led to them often being referred to as "microdrives" too. As of 2015, Microdrives are viewed as obsolete, having been eclipsed by solid-state flash media in read/write performance, storage capacity, durability, physical size, and price. ==History== Prior to the 1-inch Microdrive, a 1.3-inch HDD was developed and launched in 1992 by HP with a capacity of 20 MB. These units weighed about 28 g (1 oz), with dimensions of 2.0" x 1.44" x 0.414" (50.8 mm x 36.5 mm x 10.5 mm) and were the physically smallest hard drives in the world before the Microdrive. In 1999, IBM launched the first generation 1-inch Microdrive with storage capacities of 170 MB and 340 MB.〔(IBM ships the world's smallest hard drive )〕 The physical dimensions of Microdrive were 1.65" x 1.42" x 0.197" (42.0 mm x 36.0 mm x 5.0 mm) and conformed to CompactFlash Type II card standard. A second generation of Microdrive was announced by IBM in 2000 with increased capacities at 512 MB and 1 GB. Following the merger of IBM and Hitachi HDD business units, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies continued the development and marketing of the Microdrive. In 2003, 2 GB and 4 GB models were announced〔(World's Smallest Hard Drive Now Bigger: 4GB on a One-Inch Disk )〕 by Hitachi, followed by 6 GB capacity model in 2005. In 2004, Seagate launched 2.5 and 5 GB models, and referred to them as either 1-inch hard drives or CompactFlash hard drives due to the trademark issue. These drives were also commonly known as the Seagate ST1. In 2005 Seagate launched an 8 GB model. Seagate also sold a standalone consumer product based on these drives with a product known as the Pocket Hard Drive. These devices came in the shape of a hockey puck with an integrated USB 2.0 cable. In 2003-07-16, a Chinese manufacturer called GS Magicstor, Inc. (subsidiary of GS Magic, Inc.) announced it had produced 1-inch hard disk drive with capacity of 2.4GB at the beginning of the year 2003,〔(The Meeting of Productions Announcement )〕 originally marketed as an alternative to Microdrive by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.〔(David Chu Reshapes 1" HDD Industry )〕 It was to be followed by 2.2 and 4.8GB 1-inch HDD that was unveiled in 2004 International CES, with 0.8-inch HDD.〔(GS Magicstor Announces 1-Inch Hard Drive )〕〔(Conference highlights high-tech industry )〕〔(GS Magicstor Inc. unveils groundbreaking 1" HDD at 2004 International CES )〕 In 2004-12-28, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced it had filed lawsuit against GS Magicstor, Inc., GS Magic, Inc., and Riospring, Inc. for infringement of multiple Hitachi GST's patents relating to hard disk drives,〔(Hitachi Files Patent Infringement Complaint against GS Magicstor Companies )〕 after GS Magic Inc. had started promoting mini-HDD (small form factor hard disk drive).〔(Guizhou Important Technologies News Conference - Focus on mini-HDD )〕 As of July 2012, no manufacturers seem to be making Microdrives. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Microdrive」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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