Hitachi Claims Leap in HDD Density

Hitachi Global Storage will come out with hard drives containing 230 gigabits of data per square inch. “We’re redesigning the head and disc quite significantly,” said Bill Healy, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at Hitachi. The technology will allow Hitachi to come out with a 20GB microdrive, which has a diameter of 1 inch (currently microdrives top out at 6GB).

Hitachi will actually come out with drives that employ perpendicular-recording techniques toward the end of this year, but these first drives won’t be nearly as dense — holding only around 130 gigabits to 150 gigabits per square inch — and will mostly serve as a transitional technology, he said. Continue >>