Toshiba, who entered the Australian storage market earlier this year, has successfully tested a new hard disk technology that delivers 2.5 terabits of data per square inch according to company officals.
Toshiba’s bit patterned method involves using an etching mask as a template to create a servo pattern readable by a hard drive using 17nm self-assembling polymer dots.
Competitors, including Western Digital, claim that this new approach is far from becoming the next industry standard as it cannot yet be delivered cost-effectively.
Western Digital, along with its alliance partners Hitachi and Seagate, while still investigating a bit patterned media approach, are also buoyant about a technique called single magnetic recording (SMR). It’s likely that this approach could reach the market in two years, delivering drives packing densities of 1.5 to 2 terabits of data per square inch using a heat-based laser writing method.
The Toshiba storage technology marks a four-fold increase in density over today’s hard disks. Analysts claim that news of the breakthrough is significant as it comes at a time when the rotating media industry has not settled on an industry roadmap for the next generation of hard disks.
In a war similar to HD DVD Vs Blu-ray, Toshiba is being urged to join Western Digital, Hitachi and Seagate as a member of the International Disc Drive and Equipment Materials Association (IDEMA). This is seen as an important collaboration as the cost of developing the next generation of hard disk drives can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. A common development road map will minimize costs significantly, although it is generally agreed that, ultimately, both the bit patterned approach and SMR will jointly form the long-term future hard disk development.
