Fujitsu has announced the release of its 2.5-inch 320GB 7200rpm SATA hard disk drive, its second-gen high capacity 7200rpm SATA drive.

Stating that this new component will rival the performance of traditional 3.5-inch form factor desktop HDDs, the 2.5-inch model doubles the storage capacity, increases data throughput, but keeps power consumption low.

"We anticipate the 2.5-inch 7200RPM SATA HDD worldwide shipments will increase 90% from 2007 to 2008. Fujitsu has set the bar by announcing the first 320GB HDD in this class", said John Monroe, research vice president, Gartner, Inc.

"We expect the increased capacity and performance of 7200RPM HDD will create new opportunities for personal computing manufacturers to produce a rich user experience designed to leverage the latest developments in gaming, video and multimedia laptop applications."

The hard disk drive should find a home in slim-line desktop PCs, along with mainstream and high performance gaming laptops and will make it to market later this year.