Sony Develops Fluid-Filled Bags For Hard Disks

MsManhattan writes "Sony has filed for a US patent on a liquid-filled airbag that cushions hard disks from heavy shocks in portable electronic devices. 'The liquid used could be water or silicon oil,' and 'the electronics would of course be in a liquid-tight case.' Sony expects to use the technology in mobile devices such as cameras, media players, smartphones, and laptops." The article mentions a clever approach Sony has come up with to handle shocks of varying intensity.

Solid state

[BWJones]

I expect solid state storage to make redundant the need for liquid cushioning for hard drives and we won't be dealing with this cushioning problem for long. Already there have been a number of incidents where solid state memory is proving far more resistant to physical damage (shock and water immersion) than "rotational media" and with plummeting costs, consumers will have access to far more solid state media in the very near future anyway. Hey the people that are being really hard on their equipment [utah.edu] are going with solid state storage, so why should not the rest of us for our iPods, laptops and iPhones?

Besides, I just don't know about fluid filled electronics. I've played around with liquid cooling in the past and have never been able to come up with a reliable (read: long term=years) solution that does not leak. We run our systems 24/7 and I thought that perhaps Apple had come up with a decent solution for liquid cooling on their older G5 towers, but we currently have a dual G5 in the shop that had managed to pee all over itself. Needless to say, that is a system that is awaiting a part from IBM and is down, not doing anything productive. Apple had the right idea in dumping the IBM and their liquid cooling necessity and I think that for the time being, I'll avoid drives bathed in liquid as well... Especially given that the articles focus is for equipment that receives more physical impacts than a desktop machine.

P.S.... Not sure why this was posted under YRO...

Re:Solid state

[HockeyPuck]

I put a lot more "wear and tear" on my running shoes which have a gel in the sole. In the 15 years I've been running, I've never had gel leak.

Re:Solid state

[BWJones]

I put a lot more "wear and tear" on my running shoes which have a gel in the sole. In the 15 years I've been running, I've never had gel leak.

Yeah, but that gel is in an absolutely sealed envelope. Nothing (wires) needs to get in or out, whereas with a hard drive, unless you are powering by induction and have a wireless (radio or optical) way of transmitting data, you need wires to penetrate the envelope. *That* is where failure occurs.

Re:My girlfriend's cell phone

[schweinhund]

If you're serious, she should be throwing you right out the door. If she's pissing you off, then just leave her to do whatever it is she does. Breaking her phone is weak, not to mention lame.

Re:Solid state

[suv4x4]

Yeah, but that gel is in an absolutely sealed envelope. Nothing (wires) needs to get in or out, whereas with a hard drive, unless you are powering by induction and have a wireless (radio or optical) way of transmitting data, you need wires to penetrate the envelope. *That* is where failure occurs.

Well, what a stupid theory.

I could take it further though. How did the liquid get into the envelope? It had to penetrate the envelope!

Now spend few minutes thinking how you could shape a tightly sealed envelope with liquid around a disk, and leave a hole for cables without using ice-pick to puncture it. Come on, it's not hard.

Re:Solid state

[BWJones]

Well, what a stupid theory.

You don't have to resort to being an ass here...

I could take it further though. How did the liquid get into the envelope? It had to penetrate the envelope!

But then you can seal it with no need for "ports" to be maintained which as any engineer who deals with these sorts of problems will tell you, *are* failure points. Thus the whole industry of gaskets, seals etc...etc...etc... My point is that unless the benefits greatly outweigh the costs/hassle of dealing with liquids in electronic environments, I'll choose to have my electronics in good 'ol air, thanks very much. And with solid state.... why should we bother?

Re:Solid state

[nwbvt]

"In the case with hard drives, the hard drives are not floating in water themselves, they are surrounded by a sealed packet of liquid."

No, they actually are in the liquid themselves (well, technically they have a waterproof shell, but that is in the liquid solution). This is a patent for a system in which the hard drive is suspended in liquid (and no, its not simply filling a baggie with water and dropping the device in it, its a bit more complicated that that). Yes, the /. summary did not exactly make that clear, but if you think about it, simply using a liquid filled cushion wouldn't be even remotely patentable (there is plenty of prior art out there for that).

Because it's about patents

[Moraelin]

Because it's about patents, and some people have an allergy to that word as a matter of principle. You know, everyone should invest billions in research (considering that IIRC for medicine it costs over 100 million just to get it tested and approved, and for other high tech stuff research costs are even ridiculously higher) and then let everyone undercut their prices (it's easier to price your stuff cheaper when you don't any research costs to recoup.) People should just be proud to go bankrupt to further technology, obviously.

Also, patents have this nice advantage for FUD and clueless crusading: if you don't actually read it, and conveniently skip (or don't understand) around the parts that are new, everything can be made to sound like a rehash of something that already exists. Sealed hard drive _in_ liquid bag? Well, just ignore the "hard drive in liquid" part and it just sounds like a sealed gel bag. New ceramics insulation for a capacitor? Ignore the new material and manufacturing technology, and it's just a capacitor. New antibiotic? Ignore the "new" part, and the research which went into finding it, and it's just an antibiotic, those things existed for ages. Why the heck are people allowed to patent those?

(For bonus points, for medicine also add (A) the standard conspiracy theories that the Russians/Chinese/Tibetan-monks/etc discovered some wonder drug that heals everything, regardless of being gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, virus, fungus, physical damage, allergy or mutation of one's own cells, and the evil pharma companies hide that so they can sell such new antibiotics, and (B) how they're evil if they try to recoup those research costs instead of giving the medicine for free to poor kids in Africa, and to everyone else who needs it, for that matter.)

At any rate, here's why it's about "your rights": because some people think they have a sacred right to make a living out of someone else's research. They shouldn't ever have to research anything or have a single original thought in their whole life. They should just wait until someone comes up with a new idea, then make a living copying it. If some law prevents them from doing that, it's obviously a violation of their very human rights.

I'm a bit at a loss as to the "Online" part, but I guess it's because there was no "your rights offline" category.