Researchers show off laser-based HDD technology

Posted on Thursday, July 05 2007 @ 2:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Scientists at Radboud University Nijmegem in the Netherlands have presented a laser-based hard drive technology. ARS Technica reports:
In tests, researchers at the university were able to transfer data to a magnetic hard drive using laser light at speeds of up to 40 femtoseconds per bit (a femto is a quadrillionth of a second). This is approximately 100x faster than our fastest current conventional drives and represents a potential breakthrough in hard drive technology. Numerous previous attempts have been made to utilize polarized laser light as a write mechanism, but all previous attempts have failed due to an improper mixture of magnetic alloys.

Even though the Netherlands team has taken a major step forward, it'll be years before we see an actual shipping product based on the use of a laser write head. The current housing for a laser capable of emitting a pulse just 40fs long would be approximately three foot square and draw up to a kilowatt of power. In addition, the 40-femtosecond pulse speed only represents the time required to write a single bit of data. Longer read/write transactions would be governed by speed rate at which the laser emitted pulses (approximately 80 MHz)..


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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