Hitachi Global Storage Technologies plans to announce Monday it has developed technology that will quadruple the storage capacity of desktop hard drives within the next two years. The new reading-head technology will allow the company to cram more data on hard drives. Desktop computers could attain a capacity of 4TB of storage while laptop storage could reach 1TB, according to Hitachi.
Hard drives are currently doubling in capacity every two years, said John Best, chief technologist at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The new reading-head technology will allow an even greater capacity boost while shrinking the size of disk drives, Best said.
View: The full story
News source: PCWorld
Hard drives are currently doubling in capacity every two years, said John Best, chief technologist at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The new reading-head technology will allow an even greater capacity boost while shrinking the size of disk drives, Best said.
View: The full story News source: PCWorld
So? just get 3 more and raid them for backup... sure only 8TB will be left... but woh! fast and secure... unless house burns down or something.
So? just get 3 more and raid them for backup... sure only 8TB will be left... but woh! fast and secure... unless house burns down or something.
that still doesn't solve the problem that its mechanical and parts will fail , like i said they should be moving into researching and developing new methods of storage one that doesn't use mechanical parts
Besides, non mechanical memory not researched? what do you call flash?
Besides, non mechanical memory not researched? what do you call flash?
i didn't say it wasn't researched , and i wasn't talking about flash maybe its just me thinking out side of the box
What's wrong with Flash or SSDs? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
O RLY?
I have had several hard drives fail, but only 1 of 5 flash drives, all different brands and sizes.
No it was hitachi, they even made a video about it!
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/rec...rAnimation.html
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/rec...rAnimation.html
Last edited by warwagon on 15 Oct 2007 - 17:25
Increasing HD speeds would make computers immensely faster since the HD is the sole weakest link... Maybe this new head technology will help in that area? Since the higher the density the more the head can "grab" at once, but there was no mention of it so it is just idle speculation on my part. Ether way, I vote for faster disks more so than more spacious disks...
If they have the technology to build 4TB drives then why don't they release them TOMORROW???
So, basically, the do it to keep costs down and to recoup R&D costs... This isn't unique to technology companies... It is done in almost every industry that produces products that gets improvements. Cars is an example that comes to mind. They make an advancement in car technology and release a new car on that technology and then they refresh the model with minor updates each year until the next major advancement.
Wouldn't call cars a good example. They are a very mature (one could argue outdated) technology with very few 'major' advancements. The upgrade path is basically done on looks (this years model makes last years model look old) and incremental size increase (this years model has 1 cm more leg room etc).
Surely if Hitachi offered a 4TB HD tomorrow at the same price as the oppositions' 500GB drives then they would corner the market and recoup their 'development costs' back rather quickly.
I blame Industry collusion...
Wouldn't call cars a good example. They are a very mature (one could argue outdated) technology with very few 'major' advancements. The upgrade path is basically done on looks (this years model makes last years model look old) and incremental size increase (this years model has 1 cm more leg room etc).
Surely if Hitachi offered a 4TB HD tomorrow at the same price as the oppositions' 500GB drives then they would corner the market and recoup their 'development costs' back rather quickly.
I blame Industry collusion...
There are advancements in car technology with each new model (not the yearly increments, I mean actual models). You can argue that those advancements are not significant or that they are, but they are considered advacements by the companies investing billions in them and the consumers looking at spending billions to acquire it.
The same is usable in technology... Do we NEED 4TB HDs today? Probably not... And, as I argued above, since the speeds of HDs are pretty much stagnant does is it really any different than an "incremental size increase" (to quote you)?
The fact is there are people who see the additions to the car as beneficial just as there are people who see 4TB as beneficial. There is a cost to developing that technology and those costs have to be recouped...
Also, Hitachi would not benefit by dumping 4TB HDs today at the price of a 500GB HD. They would only hurt themselves (as they wouldn't be able to produce enough of them to meet world demand as they would essentially be making the only HD in demand) by being unable to deliver their orders on time. The market would also bounce the price back into check. Since the HD would be in super high demand and the supply would be so low retailers would adjust the price accordingly to reduce demand. So the retailer would get super high markups at the expense of Hitachi who needs to recover R&D costs on the technology...
It is a nice dream that they could just drop it all out at once, but the reality is much different. The HD business is extremely competitive so these companies drop out their best as soon as they can to get some kind of competitive edge over the next company.
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