100 times faster hard drives using laser to write magnetic data

[knightmare]

Lighting a Fire Under Hard Drives

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/content/vol2007/issue628/images/200762831.jpg

n the race to make computers more powerful, magnets may be out and lasers may be in. Ultra-rapid pulses of polarized light fired from lasers, new tests show, can outperform conventional magnetic data writers by as much as two orders of magnitude. The technology could form the foundation of a new generation of computers that link lasers to their hard drives.


full story-
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/628/3

[A_old]

coo

[Brent]

That's great and all, but a decade until a prototype? Ugh, so far away until this could hit retail.

They didn't say how it compares to the speed of solid state storage. IMO that's the answer, prices are coming down on this medium.

[David]

That's great and all, but a decade until a prototype? Ugh, so far away until this could hit retail.

They didn't say how it compares to the speed of solid state storage. IMO that's the answer, prices are coming down on this medium.

Especially at the rate that flash memory is increasing in capacity.

[Massa]

I think the only problem with solid state storage is that it's hard to reach those insane speeds while minimizing volatility and keeping the size reasonable. It's coming, but it doesn't seem like it will be here that much earlier than this tech.

[YARDofSTUF]

That's great and all, but a decade until a prototype? Ugh, so far away until this could hit retail.

They didn't say how it compares to the speed of solid state storage. IMO that's the answer, prices are coming down on this medium.

I havent seen any solid state drives at 2x the speed of a normal harddrive, nevermind 100x.

[David]

I havent seen any solid state drives at 2x the speed of a normal harddrive, nevermind 100x.

The laser still has to write on some form of medium. Is this any different than the process with rewritable cd/dvd disks.

[YARDofSTUF]

The laser still has to write on some form of medium. Is this any different than the process with rewritable cd/dvd disks.

I'm missing the connection of what you typed to my quote...

[David]

I'm missing the connection of what you typed to my quote...

Understood.

I am comparing expectations. You are correct that current NAND memory is not as fast as the projections for the "Laser drives". Comparing apples to apples, one could project solid state memory could out pace the laser units, especially when compared to the current offerings.

[Izzo]

Understood.

Comparing apples to apples, one could project solid state memory could out pace the laser units, especially when compared to the current offerings.

tis the direction things appear to be heading....no?

[David]

tis the direction things appear to be heading....no?

I would give NAND the nod for the future, but would not give up completely on rotating media as of yet. While NANDs are selling 16GB and laser drives are 50GB (though not rewritable... that would be 25GB), Hitachi has 1TB drives out right now. As for speed, the new 1TB drives as proving to be as fast if not faster than 10K Raptor drives (thanks probably to the areal density). Fujitsu has implied that they made a breakthrough that would offer 3 TB capacity.

All we need is the next big thing to make all this storage worthwhile.