Hitachi May Quadruple Notebook HDD Capacities to 1TB
Hitachi announced today its developed the world’s smallest read-head technology for hard disk drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage capacity limits to one terabyte on a notebook hard drive. Researchers at Hitachi have successfully reduced recording heads to the 30-50 nanometer range, which is up to 2,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair.
Called current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive1 (CPP-GMR) heads, Hitachi’s new technology is expected to be implemented in shipping products in 2009 and reach its full potential in 2011.
“Hitachi continues to invest in deep research for the advancement of hard disk drives as we believe there is no other technology capable of providing the hard drive’s high-capacity, low-cost value for the foreseeable future,†said Hiroaki Odawara, Research Director, Storage Technology Research Center, Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. “This is an achievement for consumers as much as it is for Hitachi. It allows Hitachi to fuel the growth of the ‘Terabyte Era’ of storage, which we started, and gives consumers virtually limitless ability for storing their digital content.”
Hitachi believes CPP-GMR heads will enable hard disk drive (HDD) recording densities of 500 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2) to one terabit per square inch (Tb/in2), a quadrupling of today’s highest areal densities.
