Hard disk drive technology has been in somewhat of a rut. While the capacity of the drives have increased, the idea of storing data on stacked spinning disks hasn’t changed in years, until now. Sony has developed a new technology that will increase the storage space of hard drives by five times.
Sony’s idea is to use magnetic and optical technology and meld them into a hybrid device using a laser to write data onto the media. This will allow the extreme packing of data into smaller areas of space and results in a dramatic increase in information on the new disk drives.
As an example, a typical 320GB hard drive would be able to increase its capacity to 1.6 terabytes while maintaining the same form factor. Applications for the new technology could be used in expanding the data storage of various electronic devices such as PCs or game consoles.
Sony has not revealed any immediate plans to make these new hard drives but has committed itself to working with hard drive manufacturers to develop and ship the product in the future.
[via electronista.com]
