New technology involving iron-platinum alloys could be the key to dramatically increasing the storage capacity of hard disk drives, it has been suggested.

At present, most drives make use of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), which involves the magnetisation of small grained materials orientated vertically in the recording medium.

Mark Re, Vice-President of Recording Operations at hard drive manufacturer Seagate, told ConceivablyTech.com that PMR could push areal density to 1Tb per sq in.

But he also explained that this limit could be reached in two to three more generations of products - possibly between 2013 and 2015 - as companies make increasingly quicker drives.

Shingle writing, which uses partially overlapping tracks to boost density, has been highlighted as a temporary fix capable of pushing capacity ten to 50 per cent higher, Channel Register reports.

However, Seagate appears to be hedging its bets on a longer-term solution known as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which sees the tiny pieces of material heated to have their magnetic direction changed.

The company has manufactured some prototype drives using the HAMR approach - incorporating iron-platinum alloys and standard read/write heads - although it is not particularly cost-effective at present.

Mr Re revealed that this could push areal density up to 50Tb per sq in, with further improvements possible by combining HAMR with another technique, bit-patterned media recording.

This involves placing an insulating doughnut-shaped ring around pieces of material laid out in a "very precise and very hard to produce medium", according to ConceivablyTech.com.

Seagate is the largest manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions in the world.

Sources:



Seagate pushes HAMR as next big thing (10/08/10)



Next-Gen HDD Tech To Enable 200-300 TB Storage Space (09/08/10)

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