Yuna

Q: What is Perpendicular recording?

A: Perpendicular recording is a new technology implemented in new large capacity hard drives. It allows greater data densities to be stored (theoretically up to ten times more) on the disk surface, meaning that it allows for larger capacity (GB) hard drives to be developed.

From here on it helps to have at least a basic understanding of how a hard drive operates: Clicky to learn

Q: Why was it implemented into hard drives?

A: Bits of data are stored on hard drives as microscopic magnetic ‘grains’. Their magnetic orientation is what causes them to be either 0 (off) or 1 (on). As drive data densities are pushed to the limit, the grains become so closely packed that they interfere with each other, changing their orientation and causing corrupt data. This is due to the ‘super-paramagnetic effect”. By placing the grains perpendicular to the disk this problem can be alleviated.


Q: Does a Perpendicular recording drive perform differently to a ‘non-perpendicular recording’ drive???

A: I was unable to find information that says it does or does not, however, I suppose since more bits are passing the read/write heads in any given amount of time, that there would be some performance benefit, unless there is already a bottleneck somewhere in the system between the drives interface (SATA/ATA) and the read/write heads which negates this.


Q: How does it work?

A: Conventional hard drives store bits of data flat against the platter using ‘Longitudinal recording’. Hard drives with Perpendicular recording have bits that stand - as you probably guessed - perpendicular to the disk. Take a look at this picture which shows the platter and read write assembly side-on. You can clearly see that more bits can be accommodated on the disk surface with Perpendicular recording.



Incase your wondering, the ‘additional layer’ helps guide the magnetic flux between the heads, which basically makes the write head operate more efficiently.

Still unsure how it works? There is a very ridiculous flash animation released by Hitachi which (tries to?) show how it works. I was unable to watch the entire thing though, just to warn you how bad it is…


More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpendicular_recording
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/resear...rding_head/pr/

Joshn

wow. that actually makes sence. any idea when they will begin to implment it?

gonX

#2 they've already implemented it. Hitachi and Seagate has some newer ones with it.

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Joshn

oh nice, im guessing expensive?

Wheezy Baby

not at all. You can pick up a 250GB or 320GB (i forgot lol) one from Seagate for $94 and it is amazing. (16MB cache too)

nice lil faq btw, i was wondering what it was all about

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