TDK designs laser heater to double HDD capacity

Posted on Monday, October 10 2011 @ 21:40 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Register reports TDK has developed a heat-assisted magnetic recording technique that could double HDD capacity:
Japanese disk drive head supplier TDK says it has added a laser heater to its platter licking devices to enable heat-assisted magnetic recording. In non-boffinry speak, this will double disk drives' areal density - and therefore double capacity. All suppliers have to do is come up with the right chemical mix for the platters.

Current perpendicular magnetic recording technology will hit a brick wall in a generation or two: as the size of each stored bit shrinks, the disk capacity increases, but the platters lose their ability to hold the magnetic direction for each bit in a stable manner. There's only so far you can shrink the bits before they stop being useful; it's called the superparamagnetic limit..


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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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