Seagate continues to push areal density boundaries

As the war between storage companies wages on, the primary target that everyone's focusing on is areal density, or a measure of how tightly data can be packed onto the surface of a disk. Although Seagate already holds the crown (for now) for magnetic recording density, the company's R&D department isn't slowing down to celebrate. While perpendicular implementations have been a successful start, it's expected to top out "around one terabit per square inch," while the division's goal is closer to "fifty terabits per square inch." Obviously, a large part of attaining such lofty goals comes from heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), but Seagate is now keying in on "bit-pattern media" to compliment said technology. On current disks, each bit is represented by "an island of about 50 magnetic grains, but since these patches are irregularly shaped, each dot must cover a certain area if it is to remain distinct." By chemically encoding an "organized molecular pattern onto the platter's substrate," however, HAMR can put a single bit on every grain, theoretically boosting the amount of data that can fit (and remain stable). Researchers also stated that disk sectors were quickly becoming a thing of the past, and that they hoped to replace them with "self-organized magnetic arrays, lithographically patterned along a platter's circumferential tracks." If all goes as planned, 3.5-inch drives holding "up to 300 terabits of information" could be readily available by 2012, and Seagate even plans to implement its data-squeezing principles into its "Probe" flash-like memory modules, which will definitely come in handy when we're all toting 500-megapixel digicams.

[Via Joystiq]

[shirizaki @ Jan 3rd 2007 12:04PM]

Seagate IS for porn!

[Rick @ Jan 3rd 2007 12:58PM]

I believe in the often unmentioned "Porno law of hardrives". That is, the increase in the amount of space a harddrive contains is directly proportional to its' porno files. PLOH has been true since the early 70's.

[andy @ Jan 3rd 2007 12:27PM]

Does this come in Sata? I need a new drive for my TIVO S3.

[Ryan @ Jan 3rd 2007 1:41PM]

You already need a new drive for your S3 TIVO?

[FrankTheCrank @ Jan 3rd 2007 1:31PM]

300 Terabits=37.5 TeraBytes

no big whoop...just saying.

[james @ Jan 3rd 2007 12:49PM]

on a 3.5" drive? U Serious? its freaking amazing

[andy @ Jan 3rd 2007 2:09PM]

sort of.

300gb of HD = 30hrs of recording time.


That doesn't include my love for modern marvels which takes up 1gb/show. 30hrs isn't that much for a dvr. Think football, your serialized dramas, and then modern marvels. Add in the fact that you won't watch every show that you record, and 30hrs goes QUICK. I can't beleive they didn't use a 750GB drive for an 800 dollar tivo.

[William @ Jan 3rd 2007 1:55PM]

That guy looks like a complete stoner!

[StinkyChinkie @ Jan 3rd 2007 2:00PM]

Is it just me or does this guy look stoned?

[Fist of Konshu @ Jan 3rd 2007 2:20PM]

Check out the look on that dudes face! Stoned much?

[John Doe @ Jan 3rd 2007 6:31PM]

Try randomly pausing a DVD sometime while a conversation is being displayed. People look weird when random pictures are taken. All it is, is someone who is halfway through a blink.

[Dan @ Jan 4th 2007 10:29AM]

So flash-based hard drives in laptops are back out? Or is there a 50TB USB stick laying around at Kingston or something?

[Isaac @ Jan 4th 2007 10:51AM]

He looks like someone who pushed his glasses up on his head, so he can look at something very tiny up close. Get a grip.

If you're running out of space on your TiVo, maybe it's time for a DVR-based solution.

I wonder how far Seagate's holographic-optical tech has come. And when do we get our solid-state drives? Magnetics are so 1970. :)

[Isaac @ Jan 4th 2007 11:28AM]

Er, I'm a retard, I didn't mean DVR, I meant DVD-/+RW, ya know, so you can burn your favorite movies/TV shows to DVD.