Notwithstanding the various candidates for the hard disk technology for the next millennium, it could be that the future of hard disks doesn’t lie in mechanical storage systems at all. Developments in memory technology could mean that solid-state storage becomes a serious alternative to the hard disk. Solid-state disk technology, with data stored in huge banks of high speed RAM, is already available at a high-end server level, but with current RAM it can’t reach the capacities or price points to make it a mainstream proposition. However, researchers for Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Texas Instruments and others are already at work on low-cost, high-capacity RAM chips that could fit the bill. Hitachi and Cambridge University have been working on PLEDM (Phase-state Low Electron-number Drive Memory).
PLEDM uses tiny two-transistor cells instead of the capacitors used in regular DRAM and can be developed to retain memory even with power switched off. It’s expected to become a commercial product around 2005, promising a read/write time of less than 10 ns and a large signal even at low voltage.
- Hard disk (hard drive) construction
- Hard Disk (hard drive) Operation
- Hard disk (hard drive) format – the tracks and sectors of the hard disk
- File systems (FAT, FAT8, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS) explained
- Hard Disk (Hard Drive) Performance – transfer rates, latency and seek times
- Hard Disk AV Capability
- Hard Disk Capacity
- Hard Disk Capacity Barriers
- Hard Disk MR Technology
- Hard Disk GMR Technology
- Hard Disk Pixie Dust
- Hard Disk Longitudinal Recording
- Hard Disk Perpendicular Recording
- RAID – Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
- Hard Disk SMART Drives
- Hard Disk MicroDrives
- Hard Disk OAW Technology
- Hard Disk PLEDM
- Hard Disk Millipede
- Guide to Western Digital’s GreenPower hard drive technology
- Solid state hard drive (SSD) technology guide