IBM to unveil new HDD Technology
Posted 05/21/2001 - 9:29am EDT [Discussion]
ZDNet news reports that sometime today IBM is scheduled to unveil their latest offering in hard disk technology: antiferromagnetically-coupled (AFC) media, or "pixie dust" as it is informally known. According to IBM Research Director Currie Munce, the technology is expected to allow data densities of up to 100Gb per square inch.
The increased density is made possible by introducing a thin layer of ruthenium onto the disks inside hard drives where data is stored, allowing more data to be packed onto a disk. It is unlikely that there will be a price jump as the cost per gigabit of information will decrease.
"We've found a way to add AFC to our current hard drive production methods, so we'll be able to double capacity with little or no cost, essentially maintaining or even dropping the price per gigabit," Munce said.
The new AFC devices will also allow smaller drives and decreased power usage, leading to quieter, more efficient devices. A device with a 100Gb/square inch will allow drives in desktops to increase to 400GB and 200GB for notebooks. IBM Microdrives would see an increase in capacity to 6GB.
Currently only IBM uses the technology in production, however Fujitsu and Seagate are expected to follow suit soon. IBM began shipping drives that use the technology three weeks ago choosing not to release the information until today for competitive reasons.
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) 700/150 g shock resistance, compared to 30GB model's 800/180 g.
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