This article explains how Hitachi is focusing on a hard drive technology that will allow them to store and read data in areas 2,000 times smaller than the width of a single strand of hair. This "new" technology is really a spin on an old version of hard drive tech that was abandoned due to size limitations. But the replacement has limitations of its own, which, when reached, will force major data storage companies back to the "new" take on an "old" technology.
Giant Magnetoresistance, or GMR, uses a disc that spins with an arm over it, like a record player. At the tip of the arm is an electromagnetic head which reads magnetic variations on the surface of the disc. GMR hit a ceiling a few years ago and new technology was the alternative. Now Hitachi has developed a way to use GMR at an incredibly small scale, which will change the way we talk about our iPods.
Today it's all about the Gigs - Gigabytes. But in 2009, we'll all be talking Terabytes.
If they can develop tiny hard drive technology, pretty soon we'll have tiny water- and air-purification technology, that can self-replicate and clean up the planet!
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