03 July 2009

New dimensions of hard disk storage

Scientists from the University of Sheffield (UK), St Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Austria) and Vienna University of Technology (Austria), have found a new way to increase the storage capacity of hard disks using green technology.

Within recent years progress has been made in increasing the number of basic units of information storage and communication (bits) per square inch, however there is a natural limit, due to the bits not being able to be packed closely.

Professor Thomas Schrefl, from the University of Sheffield´s Department of Engineering Materials and Dieter Suess from Vienna University of Technology propose to store the data in three-dimensions, therefore providing the need for less hard drives to store the same amount of data and therefore save a lot more energy. In the future hard disk companies will be using this 3D technology to overcome the natural limits posed at the moment.

To do this they use two or more magnetic layers within a single platter of a hard disk. The different layers can be addressed selectively for writing and reading: Data is stored in 3D which offers room for high storage capacities as each layer has a thickness of only a few nanometers. This will mean that movies, pictures and music will all be able to be stored on one drive in the future, rather than relying on adding in external drives.

The results of this international collaboration between the three Universities were published in the internationally highly ranked Journal of Applied Physics Letters (vol 29, no 23, 8 June 2009).

Professor Thomas Schrefl, from the University´s Department of Engineering Materials, said: "This technology will be of benefit to both businesses and the public. It will allow much more information to be stored in one place, and reduce the amount of energy being consumed."