Bytes From The Past

Fashions come back, they say. And now this is also going to hold true for
data storage. Hitachi has said it can fit 230 GB of data per square inch on a
disk using "perpendicular recording." Hitachi's work means we could
see one-inch hard drives holding 60 GB instead of up to 10 GB currently. The
storage industry currently makes hard drives using longitudinal recording, which
is reaching its limit.

Analysts predict that the number of hard drives in consumer electronics
gadgets could grow from 17 mn in 2003 to 55 mn in 2006. Jun Naruse, chief of
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, says: "Consumers' demand for storing
more data on smaller devices has provided a strong impetus for us to pursue
perpendicular recording with a greater sense of urgency."

Incidentally, perpendicular recording was pioneered in the late 19th century
by Danish scientist Valdemar Poulsen, who demonstrated magnetic recording with
his telegraphone.

Tiny hard drives that hold more data are very desirable for gadgets

Perpendicular recording methods align data bits vertically, perpendicular to
the disk. This means more space on a disk, resulting in higher recording
densities. Hitachi achieved the 230 GB per square inch density by reducing
distance between the read/write head and the recording medium to 10 nanometers
(1/10,000th of a human hair).

As storage prices come down and data capacity increases, more portable
devices are coming out with built-in hard drives, such as music and media
players from Apple, Creative Labs, Archos, iRiver and others. The technology
industry wants smaller hard drives that hold more information to go into all
kinds of digital devices like portable music players.

Apple's iPod uses hard drive technology, which has proved a big selling
point for the company because it meant people could put their entire music
collections, thousands of tracks, onto one device. Last year, Toshiba became the
first major manufacturer to come out with a 1.8-inch drive holding up to 40 GB,
which is used in the iPod and other MP3 players.

Courtesy: BBC News