Toshiba thinks it has made a break through that will soon allow them to utilize a process to increase storage density immensely.  Companies have been bandying about a process where tiny patterned dots are formed on the recording surface as opposed to a contiguous line of magnetized grains that is used on current drives.  Each of these tiny self assembled dots, currently 17nm, holds one bit and because it is more separated from its neighbour the density can be ramped up to the neighbourhood of 2.5Tb per inch2.  That would bring a 25TB HDD well into the realm of possibility.  As ExtremeTech reports, Toshiba is the first company to successfully find a way to read and write data successfully using this technology, now we have to wait for a cost effective means of manufacturing.

“If you thought recent advances in PC hard drives were something, it’s possible you haven’t seen anything yet. If Toshiba is to be believed based on its announcements Wednesday at the Magnetic Recording Conference in San Diego, it’s made a breakthrough in its research of bit-patterned media that could make even the spacious 2TB and 3TB at the top of today’s storage food chain look minuscule.”

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