Storage capacity science…take it with a grain of salt

The demand for storage capacity has scientists reaching for… the salt?

According to this press release from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore, researchers have “developed a process that can increase the data recording density of hard disks to 3.3 Terabit/in2, six times the recording density  of  current models. The  key ingredient in themuch enhanced patterning method that he pioneered is sodium chloride, the chemical grade of regular table salt.”

The fact of the matter that the current Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology is quickly reaching its limit may be the catalyst to new and innovative ways of boosting areal density, but do any of these discoveries trump what is already ahead of us in the form of HAMR? It seems all kinds of science is coming out of the woodwork to pose new ways to increase the capacity capabilities of hard drives and even optical media. Just in the past few months, I’ve seen:

Heat-assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) has recently been endorsed by all HDD makers as the next iteration of aerial density improvements. HAMR enables 50Tb/square inch, or 50x that of PMR according to a Conceivably Tech interview with Seagate’s senior vice president of recording media operations Mark Re. “There’s a general consensus the huge shift beyond perpendicular is at least three years out, so mainstream products won’t ship until 2014 or 2015,” said Mark Geenen, president of IDEMA in an EE Times article.

It’s important to note that hard drive vendors are working together on the development of HAMR.  Last year, they formed the Advanced Storage Technology Consortium (ASTC) to leverage resources to make HAMR a reality. The group is lead by Hitachi GST, Marvell, Seagate and Western Digital.

Seagate for one has been working on HAMR for 10 years, and the technology has been proven by not only Seagate, but other hard drive companies as well. So, I’ll take this news of sodium chloride with a grain of salt.

Related Posts:

Seagate Swings “HAMR” To Increase Disc Drive Densities By A Factor Of 100
HAMR follows PMR to keep disks driving
Seagate clears the air on HAMR vs BPM

2011-10-18T16:17:56+00:00

About the Author:

2 Comments

  1. […] Superman Crystals […]

  2. […] Storage capacity science…take it with a grain of salt […]

Leave A Comment