Perpendicular recording is the future for HDDs

Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology will be key to the hard disk drive industry and its adoption cannot be delayed, IDC reveals in a new special report. The transition to PMR and to the new heads and media required for this technology will begin late in 2005 and will be broadly adopted in products by the end of 2007. IDC predicts that PMR will be ubiquitous in the 630 million hard drives shipped in 2009.

"The transition to PMR and to other new technologies should demand renewed focus on company business models, partnerships, and strategies," said David Reinsel, director for Storage Research at IDC. "The required increase in investments (e.g., R&D spending, new manufacturing capacity, etc.), will drive further industry consolidation."

Among key findings discussed in this report are the following:

Vertically-integrated companies will have smoother and less costly transitions to perpendicular recording and other new technologies, but must bear R&D costs on their own.

The large majority of small form factor hard drives shipped by 2008 will leverage perpendicular recording for capacity requirements.

Suspension technology like secondary actuation already has limited implementation and is not targeted for broad-based implementation until 2007.

Within 5 years, PMR will reach areal densities of four to five times that of today's technology.

GMR CPP is now expected in 2007, not before Femto or TMR.

Some details on how perpendicular recording works can be found here