Seagate has announced that it has begun worldwide volume shipments of what it claims is the industry's first 250GB-per-disc, 3.5-inch disc drive on the strength of second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording technology.

The company says its one-disc Barracuda hard drive has an industry-leading data density of 180Gb per square inch and sets new benchmarks for power consumption, acoustics and performance for Seagate desktop PC hard drives. Low power consumption reduces operating temperatures, crucial in ensuring high reliability and a long drive life, added Seagate.

The Seagate Barracuda 3.5-inch 7200.10 desktop drive is built with a SATA 3Gb/s interface and will serve as the foundation for Seagate's 1-terabyte desktop, enterprise, consumer electronics and external hard drives, noted the company.

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