The harddrive manufacturers seem to be working overtime to push the mechanical harddrive technology to new heights and after hearing Fujitsu presenting a new harddrive technology with a 500 percent boost in storage capacity, the time has come for Toshiba’s to present its new creation. Researchers at Toshiba and University of Tohoku in Japan has namely announced a new method for making new magnetic read/write heads that will increase the storage density from the 178.8Gb record of today, to more than 1Tb per square inch.
The secret is Nanocontact Magnetic Resistance (NC-MR) which will improve the magnetoresistance of the head. Prototypes have demonstrated a twice as large magnetoresistance ratio as read heads of today, not to mention a decreased resistance that makes it possible to shrink the size of the heads.
The mechanical harddrive seems to have gained some new momentum now that the flash technology has found its way on to the market for permanent storage and the upcoming years we will see several new technologies improving the storage capacity even more. Toshiba’s new technology is not expected to reach the market until 2012 though.
