Hard drives will soon reach 2 terabytes thanks to orthogonal technology

Hard drive capacity for desktops, laptops and music devices is being expanded thanks to orthogonal magnetic recording technology (PRM), which allows more data to be stored but still at high speeds compared to current art.

Momentus drive 5400.3, 160 GB according to Seagate's PRM (above) technology and Seagate 5400.2 drive. ( PC World )

The horizontal recording technology in storage products on the market is revealing density restrictions and it took many years for manufacturers to fix that problem. One of the highly regarded solutions is PRM technology, which allows the placement of data bits - corresponding to magnetized molecules - on vertical surfaces to increase the density of information on each disk. As a result, consumers will have the opportunity to own large, low-cost products to store multimedia content, high-definition (HD).

Toshiba has released 1.8-inch PRM drives of 40 GB and 80 GB. At the time of the announcement, Toshiba's Megabeat MP3 player was the only product equipped with orthogonal recording technology, but it was partly showing that PRM will soon appear in a range of consumer electronics and laptops. hand.

Next is Seagate, a US company with Momentus 5400.3 2.5 inch, 30 GB - 160 GB capacity. The 160 GB model is currently the drive for the largest capacity notebook on the market. In addition to saving more data, it consumes energy saving, less heat and quieter operation. Currently many BIOSes do not accept hard drives above 137 GB, but systems that work with Windows XP SP1 come back and Linux supports 160 GB drives.

Saegate predicts that desktop 3.5-inch PRM, 2-terabyte (TB) drives for desktops, 2.5-inch drives, 1 TB for laptops and 1-inch 50 GB drives for MP3 players will become a reality only. in a short time.

Currently, the highest capacity hard drive on the market (500 GB) reaches a density of 125 Gb / inch2. Meanwhile, the Toshiba PMR and Seagate Momentus 5400.3 models are 133 Gb / inch2 - significant density compared to the average of 100 Gb / inch2 at this time.

According to Seagate, thanks to its superior capacity, heat and operating speed, new storage technology will quickly be received by users. What's more, these drives still keep the price of $ 2 per GB at the moment, meaning everyone can buy a 160 GB drive for $ 320.

The table compares the PRM hard drive technology and the horizontal recording technology of Seagate (both have 5,400 rpm, 2, 5 inch, 8 MB buffer and ATA-100 interface):