The 80GB iPod Is On Its Way
Toshiba is close to commercialising a new data storage technology that could significantly increase the capacity of hard-disk drives. Apple iPod users are likely to be the first to benefit.
Source: TechWorldBy the middle of next year, it will release two new 1.8-inch hard-disk drives with the technology, called perpendicular recording. Like current drives, the new method relies on storing data in magnetically charged bits. However, unlike current longitudinal recording in which the bits lie flat on the disk surface, in perpendicular recording they stand upright and thus take up less space.
This means there is room for more of them on the disk and so the storage capacity is higher. Longitudinal storage technology is running out of potential to increase disk capacity significantly.
The first two drives planned by Toshiba will have a recording density of 133 gigabits per square inch - 37 percent greater than current drives, said Junko Furuta, a spokeswoman for Toshiba in Tokyo. They will be 1.8in drives of the type used in portable consumer electronics products, such as digital music players - most famously Apple's iPod family.
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