Toshiba's NC-MR technology could boost HDD capacity 'tenfold'
By Darren Murph 
posted May 21st 2007 1:12AM
posted May 21st 2007 1:12AM
Just days after Fujitsu tooted its own horn and suggested that it could increase hard drive capacity by 500-percent in a mere two years comes word that Toshiba coincidentally has a similarly grandiose claim. Aside from the obvious leapfrog game that's being played here, Tosh has apparently been working hand-in-hand with Tohoku University to develop "a phenomenon" dubbed Nanocontact Magnetic Resistance, or NC-MR, in which an "enormous difference in magnetoresistance is achieved when two magnetic materials are situated close together and connected by a contact point that narrows to around 1-nanometer." Put simply, the prototype NC-MR structure is twice as large as today's read heads, and elements based on the NC-MR structure would have a "lower resistance than existing TMR elements, enabling the read heads to be miniaturized and still operate quickly." Of course, these sensational claims have yet to make it beyond the drawing board, and while you may be anxious to get one of these in your rig, you'll be waiting about five years or so if things continue as planned. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]
300GB Zune? Leetness.
NC-MR? Bleh. Big deal. In five years, everything with storage will most likely be solid state, anyway.
"In five years, everything with storage will most likely be solid state, anyway."
That's what we said 20 years ago.
Yes, Chris, but it's not 1987. It's 2007.
And we're actually starting to see this technology in devices and see these drives being manufactured with higher and higher capacities by more and more companies. Give it five years, and even if it doesn't completely replace current HDD tech, it'll certainly share a giant chunk of the market.
The only reason home users need that much storage space is because they download illegal music, videos, and software.
Steve, you're so smart, can I have your autograph? Seriously, though, the more the merrier.
forgetting digital home movies and photographs, and the HD format, are we? Or are you still shooting 35mm film - and blanks?
Fujitsu effectively promises 500TB drives by 2009. Maybe Toshiba could help 10x that. Should be sufficient to record people's lives 24/7 in HD - until more space-sapping applications come along.
I have used my computer for making films and have thousands of high (enough) resolution. I struggle to fill my 20Gb hard disk. Explain to me why home users need 300Gb hard disk space unless they are using it for illegal media. Zing!
Steve, I'm sure you haven't heard of this little thing called iTunes, but when you legally buy media from it, it actually downloads the legal media to your hard drive. While my current collection is small compared to some, I can easily imagine filling up 300 Gb with personal hi-res pictures, home movies, legally bought movies, legally bought songs, and legally bought TV shows. Zing....Zing....Zing.
"Explain to me why home users need 300Gb hard disk space unless they are using it for illegal media."
High-def Porn. Purchased by adults featuring consenting adults.
Recorded television shows from a media center PC acting as a DVR. Yes, it's several hundred hours, but you start recording every Simpsons, Daily Show, Colbert Report every day and it starts adding up.
Uncompressed DV-tape footage. You upload a half dozen tapes of your vacation and want to find the good bits to send to the relatives. You aren't sure just how you'll compress it in the end and keep it uncompressed in the meantime.
I don't see this as that much of a surprise. It was my understanding that most companies are developing technologies far in advance, and frequently "pocket" these discoveries so that they can announce them in exactly this sort of fashion, taking the wind out of the sails of their competitors.