Maxtor said on Monday that it would bring to the market hard drives with half a terabyte capacities in the third quarter of this year. The company says that the new drives would feature "significant improvements" in security and performance. The new 500GB SATA and ATA 133 drives would run at a speed of 7,200 RPM.

"Maxtor continues to focus on storage solutions tailored for specific market needs," said David Reinsel, director of storage research at IDC. "The Maxtor 500GB hard drive underscores the company's emphasis on differentiation across all of its product lines, and reflects competitiveness within market segments demanding the highest capacity drives."

News source: BetaNews