ALPS promises record-breaking hard drive densities by year's end
By Evan Blass 
posted March 17th 2006 4:00AM
posted March 17th 2006 4:00AM
Nothing gets
our hearts racing like advancements in storage technology, so we're pretty giddy that the current 80GB-per-platter
ceiling on 2.5-inch hard drives may soon get a boost, with 200GB drives possibly available before the end of the year.
Japan's ALPS Technologies has claimed that it will present a new type of thin-film recording head at a private trade
conference this May -- called TuMR -- that will enable perpendicular hard disc drive recording at an unparalleled 170
GB/in2 , compared to the paltry 132 GB/in2 that Seagate is able to muster today. Hitachi had
previously announced a technology capable of 230 GB/in2 , but so far hasn't produced the goods, so ALPS (and
also Western Digital, it would seem, for whom they supply parts) has a golden opportunity to step up and take the
coveted density crown.
Arnold Schwartzenegger will be presenting this technology this May, stating, "IT'S NOT A TuMR!"
haha! 5 stars CC!
An advancement in storage that sounds like a terminal illness. Hilarious.
I heard they were going to go with "B9", but Subaru already took that.
Oh man this is hilarious. I'm not sure it's a good name for a drive but it definitely catch one's attention. Could be a good marketing. lol
I thought of the same thing when I read the name TuMR, although I would have Arnold saying, "If it's not 200GB, It's naht a TuMR!"
Looks like the worlds smallest roach clip to me.
The article reads as though it's the conference, not the technology, that's called TuMR.
I don't want this technology to decrease drive size, I want it to increase drive capacity. I want a 3.5 inch Terabyte drive.
So they can "thin-film recording head" this and "stand up the bits" that, until they are blue in the face. Or the cows come home. Or whatever. Just ship a freaking Terabyte drive.
So, where are the Terabyte drives?
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHERE ARE THE TERABYTE DRIVES!?
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHERE ARE THE TERABYTE DRIVES!?"
If "they" had them, "they" would most certainly be selling them and making more money than the other "they's."
The thing that amazes me most is that there's still no viable way to backup all of these giant hard drives. HD storage capacity has completely blown far past the capabilities of any affordable backup solutions.
GTGadget -- that's simple... you just buy TWO drives and have them mirror each other. That's what I did. Every night, one drive is automatically copied to the other.
I just picked up two 160GB MyBook Western Digitals for $99 each at Best Buy this week! That's only 61¢ per gig!