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Toshiba 40GB Perpendicular Magnetic Record Drives

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the hot-new-methods dept.

freitasm writes "Toshiba is now shipping a 40GB 1.8" hard disk, the first in the industry based on the PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technology. The disk stores 40GB in a single platter, and there are plans to release a 80GB version later this year. The first models are already being used on Toshiba's new Gigabeat MP3 players." It's all part of their plan to squeeze more bits onto the head of a pin.

7 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory geek link - get perpendicular! by SD_92104 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even though the following is from Hitachi, it is still entertaining (and maybe we can bring down their server too...)

    Get Perpendicular!

  2. Faster... by eviltypeguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anyone know what the performance of these "perpendicular" drives will be like compared to today's accepted methods?

    1. Re:Faster... by qbwiz · · Score: 5, Informative

      The areal density will be greater, so at the same rotational velocity the peak data transer rate should be around 1.15 ( sqrt(133/100) ) times as high as before. Seek times might also be reduced (for the same amount of data on the disk), but when both drives are full, I think the seek times would both be the same.

      --
      Ewige Blumenkraft.
    2. Re:Faster... by Wireless+Joe · · Score: 5, Funny
      Anyone know what the performance of these "perpendicular" drives will be like compared to today's accepted methods?
      When I had a perpendicular drive installed in my current mp3 player (at significant expense I might add), I immediately noticed it produced a richer, warmer tone with better bass response and aural clarity. There was some fading off in the midrange, but overall a very satisfactory listening expierence.

      Oh, wait...
  3. Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Bible by adamdewolf · · Score: 5, Informative
    If you really want to know more about this tech,
    I found this book earlier in the year.
    It's pretty much the Bible for perpendicular magnetic.

    Gets really in-depth.

    Perpendicular Magnetic Recording
    by Sakhrat Khizroev, Dmitri Litvinov
    "This book is intended for graduate students, young engineers and even senior and more experienced researchers in this field who need to acquire adequate knowledge of the physics of perpendicular magnetic recording in order to further develop the field of perpendicular recording."
    --
    Ignorance is amusing, stupidity is annoying.
  4. Re:can't wait for the 1TB 3.5 inch version to arri by matt21811 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is posible to make an educated guess on this.

    The density of transistors has been doubling about every 18 months since 1997, in the storage industry, density has been doubling every 12 months.

    So,
    8/05 - 400 GB - which is close to the largest 3.5" drives you can get at the moment
    8/06 - 800 GB
    8/07 - 1600 GB

    So you could, quite reasonably, estmate that 1 TB 3.5" drives will be around early 2007.

  5. Re:Is 40GB the smallest you can buy now? by fredistheking · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Western Digital still makes 8GB drives for XBOX. These are really 20GB platters that have been short stroked to 8GB since microsoft wants uniformity. In reality these are 80GB platters that didn't make it. Western Digital doesn't produce any drives with less than 80GB platters now. All the 80GBs that you find commonly in Dells are single platter.