Toshiba Claims Bit-Patterned Drive Breakthrough 151
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samzenpus
from the packing-in-the-bits dept.
from the packing-in-the-bits dept.
CWmike writes "Toshiba will detail a breakthrough in data storage later Wednesday that it says paves the way for hard drives with vastly higher capacity than today, reports Martyn WIlliams. The breakthrough has been made in the research of bit-patterned media, a magnetic storage technology that is being developed for future hard disk drives. Bit-patterned media breaks up the recording surface into numerous magnetic bits, each consisting of a few magnetic grains. Under a microscope, the magnetic bits look like thousands of tiny spheres crammed next to each another. Data is stored on these magnetic bits: One magnetic bit can hold one bit of data. Prototypes of the media have been made before but Toshiba says its engineers have, for the first time, succeeded in producing a media sample in which the magnetic bits are organized into a pattern of rows."
Re:oh really? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm really exited to hear this:
Toshiba expects the first drives based on bit-patterned media to hit the market around 2013.
When was the last time we heard about a new tech breakthrough that wasn't followed up with "5 to 10 years" ...Though it might be 5 years by the time the price drops enough for the avg consumer.
Re:Quick explanation (Score:3, Interesting)
Existing disc platters are like parking in a field. Each car has to find its way to a spot that is clear of surrounding vehicles, and there is no pre-defined organization of the parking spots. So typically, extra space will be wasted in pathways for cars to get in and out, and there will be the inevitable mishaps with cars trapped in their spots or with no escape.
The new method precisely defines each parking spot, and there is an optimal amount of space provided for every car to get in and out. That means a lot more cars can park within a given area, and there's less of a chance for trapped cars or fender-benders.
And consistent with all car analogies, it is not 100% accurate...
Re:Bit = Binary Digit (Score:2, Interesting)
There is not a 1:1 correlation, but there might be now. With all physical bits being data bits we could gain up to 100% more data bits on the same area.
Re:Thanks, firehose (Score:4, Interesting)
It indeed might be the reason that this got picked.
See - with this copy-pasted summary - there is much less chance of it being wrong - and thereby lesser chance of ridicule.
Any issues in the summary/article - the buck can be passed to the article in question - again the editor escapes censure.
This way, the editor does not need to think too much about the article, rather a non-thinking way of copy-paste can produce the maximum results with minimum effort and minimum pay for the editors.
A more cynical view could be that with a perfect summary, people reading the article will be lesser - thereby decreasing the ad revenue for the articles - even though I do not fully subscribe to it - as per Hanlon's razor [wikipedia.org]
I read your summary - it is a perfect summary - it summarizes the main points of the article properly and in an ideal world - all summaries should be written that way. /. where quality is given scant recognition.
But, the fact it was not picked seems shows the sad state of affairs in