New HDD writing methods could boost platter densities by 5x or more
By Tim Stevens 
posted May 10th 2010 1:45PM
posted May 10th 2010 1:45PM
Just when we think that platter-based storage is on its way out it keeps on coming back with a vengeance. A few years ago it was perpendicular recording boosting storage densities by a few orders of magnitude, now it's a pair of new techniques that could push things much further. Your average disk today can manage a couple-hundred GB per square inch while still delivering reliable writes, but if all goes to plan the write methods called bit-patterned recording (BPR) and thermally-assisted recording (TAR) could raise that to 1TB per inch initially and upwards of 10TB per inch down the road. BPR relies on segregating the disk sectors with lithographed "islands" while TAR relies on heating and cooling techniques that preserve the data in nearby sectors. When these Wonder Twins combine, disk sectors can be as small as 15nm in diameter and write speeds can hit 250Mb/sec. Yes, that's megabits, so while you'll be able to store a lot more data than on conventional platters, you won't be able to do so any more quickly than now.
10tb per inch!!!!
@Tg
obligatory "that's what she said."
There, now no one else need say it.
@Tg
I'm getting the feeling "they" knew how to manufacture drives with 10 terabytes/inch 20 years ago but were just holding back. Just when we think they can't fit any more data on there, wow we found a new technique that lets us fit 10x more data.
@Tg
Yup, you can eat all you can... one byte at a time.
@Tg
That's insanely slow though. 31.25 MB/s is about 1/4 the speed of regular HDDs.
@Tg
Jeez, it's like Terminator, everytime you think you've killed, it comes back!!!
@Tg now were stepping into futurama territory
such and such terabytes of porn deleted
"dam it"
@manofchao5
Hehe.
Ah, Futurama.. how I miss thee.. but soon thou art with me again!
"26 new half-hour episodes scheduled to begin airing on June 24, 2010 at 10:00 PM"
@Tg
my mbp could so use a 1/4 Pb hdd....
@The Advanced Kind
You don't need super fast speeds per platter because with densities this big you can have 10 minidisks in one canister ala copan style.
Imagine if your HD was raid 5 in you lovely 3.5in form factor. And the possibilities for super small HD based electronics with 2TB storage. You don't need a whole lot of speed for movie/music playback.
performance is what matters much more.. will this help increase the read/write speed at all? honestly, i can't even use up my 320GB space..
"performance is what matters much more"
That's what she said.
@eggimage
Try storing digital video from a DSLR. It eats up disk space very fast. Between videos and pictures, I'm on pace to hit 1TB/yr.
I don't need the big ones that much faster. I need them cheap so I can have redundant storage and off site backup.
@migmanson I thought StraightUp said no one else needs to say it.
@eggimage
Get an SSD then. I want one of these suckers to store HD media, this is plenty fast for that.
I don't even want to think about what an SSD with that kind of storage would cost.
@daytripper This is an article about platter density. Please go away.
any estimated date when this will be out & which company will use it first ?
I hope it's WD :D
@n0rp
As long as it's not Seagate then I'm ok with it
Great... more data to lose when a hard drive craps out.
@ToniCipriani
More data to lose when one of those Wonder Twins turns into a bucket of water.
And with that porn collectors breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing that they'll have the room for more smut :)
@hemmy and more redundancy for the smut storage... Jacque Pott
@d0mth0ma5 more like "jack" pot
@agreenbhm no, he's French.
guess old dog learned a new trick gohanna stay around a little longer than alot of people thought very cool
with an increase in data-density so comes an increase of internal transfer rates. They will be faster. Why else would faster spindle speeds = faster data speeds?
@TrumanHW
You need to read the article again.
Uhh There are so many of these "New HDD writing methods" that Engadget posts about but I have never seen any of them actually make it to the production line.
@MoonWalkerCTE
I think lots of stuff does its just by the time its in a drive its not mentioned any more.
Step 1: "Hey it makes things store more so its cool!"
Step 2: You buy it without ever realizing it
least thats how it seems most storage tech happens
10TB per inch, thats a lot of data to lose all at once
@bread
Exactly what I was thinking.
Increasing density is great and all, but let's use some of that extra density for redundancy please. So they can theoretically increase density by 5x, well what about they only increase it by 3x and use that extra 2x for backup purposes.
@Hazdaz
Why would you back up on the same disk, that is ridiculous. I have never had just part of my HDD go bad, the whole thing usually goes bad. Just buy two hard drives and set up a RAID array.
The article says this is a 'paper' which indicates they have what must be a prototype. Sounds like it will either take a lot of $ or time to bring it to fruition as a mass produced product. Maybe we'll see larger drives in a few years? Unless this is very compatible with existing machinery.
Well done Engadget, you invented a new unit, the millibit - because mb sure as hell isn't magebit. If you want to distinguish between MB and Mb, at least get the m in the right case... That aside, 250Mb/s is slower than your average mechanical hard disk these days - even bad ones reach 40MB/s happily.
@Shokz Well we do try to stay on the bleeding edge...
Thanks, fixed it.
@Shokz
Man, for someone so critical, you sure make a lot of typos.
@TimStevens
Not to worry, just realised I managed to make my own spelling mistake too - magebit >.
@capnfatpants
A lot being one?
I was typing on my iPod; it's not my fault I tell you!
@capnfatpants
My last comment hasn't shown up so apologies if this ends up appearing twice:
Many being one?
Anyway, I was typing on my iPod; blame it not me! :D
@Shokz
1) Let me be the first to say failblog.
2) Since when is the number 40 larger than the number 250?
@Oli D
Since the 250 is followed by megabits and the 40 is followed by megabytes. Bytes being 8x more than bits, making it 320 bits which is greater than 250.
@Oli D
1) Let me be the second to say failblog.
2) Since 40MB/s is greater than ~31MB/s (250Mb/s)
I like SSDs and all, but there is something so satisfying about shoving a chunky HDD with a shit ton of storage into your tower.
That's cool. So can I buy this at Newegg or what..?
10 TB per inch eh? What would you download that you would need that much space? (And no, not porn. Porn doesn't take up that much. Good porn maybe, but probably no.) I suppose if Congress passes that 100 Megabit Broadband law it would be very useful for something like Steam, but that STILL would need a lot of games.
@Papytendo Obviously, you don't download anything off the internet. How about nzb with rss ?? There is never a minute in a day where I am not downloading. The reason ?? Because I have no cap, so why not use the bandwidth
@Papytendo HD video from both video cameras and Blu-Ray rips.
When do they come out at the earliest if they ever do?
I'm running out of storage... and am considering a NAS this year... but if those are to be released within one year or so I'd make sure not to go "all out" with 2TB drives once I make the step to get one...
(My hobby is photography that needs space=
@DetlevCM Let's just say that you won't be seeing this tech on store shelves for a long time.