Seagate breakthrough heralds bigger hard drives
1TB of data on a single platter
Seagate has announced that it has broken the 1TB areal density barrier. This means that it can now fit 1TB of data on a single 3.5 inch hard-drive platter, and heralding triple platter 3TB storage drives.
Previously, hard drives have been limited to less than 1TB of data – and although you can have multiple platters this has been a major bottleneck.
The hard drive specialist – which is now a key partner of Korean electronics giant Samsung – is using the new platters in its latest GoFlex Desk products.
GoFlex
"Seagate's GoFlex Desk products are the first to feature the new hard drive, delivering storage capacities of up to 3TB and an areal density of 625 Gigabits per square inch, the industry's highest," said Seagate.
"Seagate is on track to ship its flagship 3.5-inch Barracuda desktop hard drive with 3TBs of storage on 3 disk platters – enough capacity to store up to 120 high-definition movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or virtually countless hours of digital music – to the distribution channel in mid-2011.
"The drive will also be available in capacities of 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB."
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The 3.5 inch drive is largely used in desktops, with laptops using the smaller form factor 2.5-inch drives.
Growing need
With the need for data storage growing as we consume higher quality digital media and in larger amounts, higher density drives are a must.
"Organisations of all sizes and consumers worldwide are amassing digital content at light speed, generating immense demand for storage of digital content of every imaginable kind," said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing.
"We remain keenly focused on delivering the storage capacity, speed and manageability our customers need to thrive in an increasingly digital world."
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