A removable hard disk drive system first unveiled more than two years ago will soon launch commercially: IO Data Device of Tokyo is readying a drive and disk based on the Information Versatile Disk for Removable specification. The IVDR standard was developed by a consortium of 38 companies, led by electronics industry heavyweights Fujitsu, Hitachi, Pioneer, Sanyo, Sharp, and Victor (JVC). Their goal was to develop a system that provides an easy way to transfer content between devices, in the same way a CD or DVD does, but which can keep pace with the constant advances being made in data storage technology.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2003, the consortium showed the IVDR Mini, which is based on 1.8-inch drives rather than the 2.5-inch drives originally shown. It is little more than a hard disk drive in a case with a common interface and connector.