Hitachi offers first half-terabyte 3.5" HDD

Hitachi claims to be the first company to offer 3.5" half a terabyte HDD. Its new Deskstar T7K500 and Cinemastar 7K500 are optimised for data and multimedia respectively. Both run on 7200 RPM and contain three platters storing 160GB apiece.
Cinemastar is for consumer electronics and video devices and run cooloer than their desktop mates and can tolerate a wider range of temperatures. A thermal feedback system ensures that Read-Write head maintains an optimal height whatever the temperature.