NHK, Sony developing slim, high-capacity 1-in. drive

Paul Kallender   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Storage Stories  

Google's Universal Search for Business Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management The EVA 4400 Challenge Death to PST: Hidden Cost of Email Mismanagement 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop: A VDI-Optimized Storage Solution Deduplication and D2D Backup - Business and Technical Considerations The Business Value of Tape Storage Virtual Reality SCSI Inflection Point: The New Era of Serial Attached SCSI Sign up to receive Storage Resource Alerts

May 27, 2005 (IDG News Service) -- TOKYO - - Japanese public broadcaster Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), working with Sony Corp., has developed a prototype 1-in. disk drive that is thinner and has more storage capacity than similar drives on the market today, an NHK researcher said this week.
NHK, Sony and the University of Tokyo are developing the slim, high-capacity drives for use in portable devices such as mobile phones, according to Eiichi Miyashita, a senior research engineer at NHK's Science and Technical Research Laboratories (STRL). Mini hard drives are often used in portable music players as well, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.
The new drives are 2.5 millimeters thick and store 10GB of data. This makes them half the thickness of the 1-in. drives sold by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. The highest-capacity 1-in. drives currently on sale store 6GB.
A number of Japanese cell phone makers plan to start selling phones in Japan in the first half of next year with tuners to receive digital terrestrial broadcasts. A 10GB-drive would be enough to store about 100 minutes of programming, Miyashita said.
NHK and its partners have so far developed working prototypes of the drives. Miyashita declined to say when the drives are expected to go on sale.
Sony is providing technical support for the disk development, but declined to say whether it has plans to commercialize the technology.
"It's such a small disk technology. ... It's much more like a research and development project," said Sony spokesman David Yang.
Part of the secret behind the high capacity of the disks is the use of a perpendicular recording technology, Miyashita said.
Perpendicular recording is a method of storing information using magnetic fields to represent each bit. In disks that are commercially available today, the bits, or magnetic fields, lay flat on the disk surface. In drives using perpendicular recording, the bits stand vertically, or perpendicular to the disk. Because the bits take less space, more can be packed on the disk.
Several companies have announced that they will sell drives using perpendicular recording technology, including HGST, Toshiba Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.
NHK and Sony are also developing 0.85-in. disks using perpendicular recording technology, Miyashita said.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

Mozilla updates Firefox 3.1 with Alpha 2 build Microsoft explains Seinfeld-Windows TV ad: just a 'teaser' Mozilla: Firefox is faster than Chrome More top stories...

iPhone 3G owner sues Apple, AT&T over dropped calls, app crashes At 10, Google reiterates commitment to CIOs Analysts: Google spreading itself too thin

Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3 Users of Windows XP SP3 who try out IE8 Beta 2 won't be able to uninstall either one under certain circumstances. Opinion: Why Google has lost its mojo -- and why you should care Google has gone from innovative upstart to fat-and-happy industry leader in what seems like record time. Preston Gralla explains. Review: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 offers some nifty new features Microsoft's latest beta of IE8 includes better tab management, new services such as Web Slices and Accelerators, and the new 'porn mode.' IT Schools to Watch 2008 These leading-edge graduate schools are moving at the pace of the IT workplace, delivering coursework that's relevant to today's IT professionals. Windows Vista A to Z Reviews, analyses, how-tos, visual tours, hot issues and predictions about Microsoft's new OS. More Continuing Coverage After 9/11: Homeland Security Apple's iPhone Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader Bill Gates steps down BlackBerry Legal Battle Data Security Breaches Electronic Voting Firefox H-1B Visas HP's Boardroom Scandal Handheld Devices Hurricane Katrina Aftermath Microsoft Legal Issues Microsoft's Vista Open Source RFID Technology SCO's Linux Fight Sarbanes-Oxley Act Spam Voice Over IP Wi-Fi Windows Meta File Vulnerability Windows XP Service Pack 3 IT Careers 2010 Four years from now, the IT field will be a vastly different place. Will you be ready? More Special Reports Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Best in Class 2006 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2006 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2006 Salary Survey 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 IT Forecast 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 40 Years of Computerworld ASPs, Take Two Best Places to Work in IT 2003 Best Places to Work in IT 2004 Best Places to Work in IT 2005 Best Places to Work in IT 2006 Business Intelligence Home Runs Business Intelligence: Smarter BI Business Intelligence: The Future of BI CRM Goes Vertical CRM: Sober CRM Career Planning Guide 2005 Careers: IT Profession 2010 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2005 Data Management: Mining for Gems Data Management: Taming Data Chaos Development: Hard-Workin' Web Sites Development: New Tools New Choices Development: The New World of Application Development Development: The Web Services Tsunami Development: Web Services Hurdles Disaster Recovery: Preparing for the Worst E-commerce Grows Up E-mail/Groupware: Big Decisions Faces of Mobile IT Forecast 2006 Global Mobile Hardware: Multiple Cores, Multiple Challenges Hardware: On-Demand Un-Hyped Hardware: The Shape of Things to Come Horizon Awards: 10 Cool Cutting Edge Technologies IT Management: Guide to Managing Vendors IT Management: Navigating Global IT IT Management: Recovery Ahead IT Management: The Future of IT IT Management: The Resourceful Project Manager Innovative Technology Awards 2004 Management: Reinventing IT Microsoft in Transition Mobile/Wireless Leaders and Laggards Mobile/Wireless: The Untethered Worker Mobile/Wireless: Tiny Gadgets, Huge Costs Network Management: Taking Control Networking: Turbulence Ahead! Networking: VoIP Goes Mainstream Operating Systems: In the Slow Lane Operating Systems: Linux Goes Global Operating Systems: Should You Nix Unix? Outsourcing: Offshore Buyer's Guide Outsourcing: Outsourcing Dangers Premier 100 IT Leaders 2004 Best in Class Premier 100 IT Leaders 2005 Best in Class ROI: Do the Math! Salary Survey 2003 Salary Survey 2004 Salary Survey 2005 Security Action Plan Security: Compliance Headaches Security: Proactive Security Security: Risk and Reward Security: Tips From Security Pros Souped-up Security Storage: Battling Complexity Storage: Cheap & Secure Data Stores Storage: Stretching Your Storage Dollars Storage: The Lean Storage Machine Storage: The New Rules of Storage Storage: The Ultimate Backup Guide Supply Chain: Missing Links Supply Chain: RFID Reality Check The Business of Security Web 2.0 Security Wireless: Wireless At Work All Zones Application Performance Zone Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone ITIL Best Practices Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone Windows Protection Zone Identity & Security Management Zone See your link here

Enabling Data Centers that Are Both Automated and Dynamic Enabling Data Centers that Are Both Automated and Dynamic View this webcast now! Go to the webcast  Virtual Reality Download this Computerworld briefing, a $49.95 value free, compliments of Riverbed Technologies. (Source: Computerworld) Is your organization facing the struggles of ineffective capacity utilization, growing data volumes, labor intensive storage management, and a need for better disaster recovery? The data center is real, but storage is turning virtual at many organizations that need to manage these exploding storage needs. Learn how your organization can benefit from storage virtualization in this new Computerworld Report, available free for a limited time, compliments of Riverbed. Download this executive briefing  Brocade and the File Area Network - A Taneja Group Solution Profile Get this white paper now! (Source: Brocade) This Taneja Group report examines how Brocade FAN solutions are creating a stateless end-to-end file and block data infrastructure. Download this white paper  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Death to PST: Hidden Cost of Email Mismanagement Extend, Replace, or Convert; which is the best way forward for COBOL Applications? The Trend from Unix to Linux in SAP Data Centers View more whitepapers

• Mozilla updates Firefox 3.1 with Alpha 2 build
• iPhone 3G owner sues Apple, AT&T over dropped calls, app crashes
• Microsoft explains Seinfeld-Windows TV ad: just a 'teaser'
• More top stories 

Business Continuity Zone An organization's business continuity plan helps keep critical functions running during an emergency–the power fails, a virus is unleashed on your network, a natural disaster has occurred. Even the slightest downtime or loss of data can cripple your operation. CDW can help you prevent disaster by implementing a well-planned recovery strategy. Click here to visit the Zone See All Zones

Intercept Spam & Viruses With MessageLabs MessageLabs is offering a complimentary 30 day trial of its managed Anti-virus and Anti-spam security solutions. MessageLabs guarantees complete protection against all know and unknown email threats. By providing 24 hour support, your business can increase productivity and decrease risk. Register for a complimentary trial and receive a free datasheet. Download this white paper now!

Jack Demo Have WAN acceleration solutions got your head spinning? Our Technology Demo sorts it out. See how our technology offers a comprehensive solution to the entire WAN performance issue including mobile workers' needs. Download this demo and discover how everyone, from branch office workers to executives and sales people on the go, get the same LAN-like access to their enterprise applications and data they enjoy when they're at headquarters. Go now!

• Google scrubs search cache of Chrome download site

• Google's Chrome aims to kill Windows, make Web the OS of choice

• Google Chrome browser: Dethroning Microsoft or killing off Mozilla?

Read more news 

• Whoah the humanity!

• Try, try again

Read more Shark Bait