Boffins claim storage breakthrough

WE'RE GOING TO GET a lot more bytes for our buck if work by Toshiba and Tohoku University comes to fruition.

They've jointly developed a new basic technology for magnetic read heads that give hard drives ten times the storage capacity. Data will be stored at densities in excess of 1 terabit per square inch of recording surface. You never know, these savings might even be passed on to the consumer. Well, not in the UK obviously. That's not the way things are done.

The technology uses Nanocontact Magnetic Resistance, or NC-MR, in which an enormous difference in magnetoresistance is achieved when two magnetic materials are situated close together and connected by a contact point that narrows to around 1nm. A prototype thin-film NC-MR structure fabricated by the research group exhibited a magnetoresistance ratio of 140% a room temperature.

Today's hard-drive read heads exploit giant magnetoresistance effects, as the large ratio boosts the sensitivity of the read head, which enables data to be stored at higher density on the hard disk.

The magnetoresistance ratio of the prototype NC-MR structure is twice as large as current read heads, which exploit the 'tunnel magnetoresistance effect'.

Elements based on the NC-MR structure have a lower resistance than existing TMR elements, enabling the read heads to be miniaturised and still operate quickly.

The upshot? Massive increases storage capacity. It's still at prototype stage though. All Toshiba has to do is combine this head reading trick with a data-writing technique (thermal-assisted magnetic recording) and apply these to a recording medium (bit-patterned media) and they're done. Toshiba hopes to have a practical technology for hard drives ready in five years, says Nikkei.net.

Five years! Imagine what the world will be like in five years. µ

L'INQ
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