A divide over the future of hard drives

Hard drive technology, it’s changing more and more everyday. With the consistent advances in the available technology, remaining impressed with Perpendicular hard drive technology is going to become difficult.

Perpendicular hard drive technology, which started appearing last year, currently lets manufacturers increase drive density, or the amount of data stored, by around 50 percent annually. But that pace of progress will likely sputter in about four to five years.

To keep progress going, the first disks based on new technology will need to enter the market around 2011. Competitors differ, however, on how and when ideas for revamping drives should become reality.
Seagate Technologies, the world’s largest drive maker, wants to first adopt a concept called “heat-assisted magnetic recording.” This involves heating microscopic cells on the disk platters as part of the recording process…. Source: CNET