Perpendicular recording + Anodising = 1Tb per sq. Inch

You've probably all heard of perpendicular recording by now - the clever technique of storing more than one bit on a particular disk location. Indeed, you can now buy HDD's that employ the technology. Well, researchers at Fujitsu have taken the idea and run with it, claiming that with a new method that involves anodising the platters they can push data densities upto 1Tb per inch:

Researchers in Japan have reported success in an advanced data-storage technology that could help yield hard drives with capacities of seven times or more than today's most advanced drives in as soon as five years.

Their work is a refinement of perpendicular storage technology, a method of data storage that is only just beginning to come into commercial use in hard drives.

Drive makers are switching to perpendicular storage because it allows much more data to be stored on a disk. This is because the magnetic particles on which data is stored stand perpendicular to the disk's surface and so more of them can be packed onto the disk than in the current longitudinal recording method in which they lay flat.

More from PCWorld here.

So there you go - honeycombed nano-holes created via an anodising process will allow you to store more. But where will it all stop? Surely there must be an upper limit to data densities on disk based storage that we're starting to near... When will the HDD run out of steam?

Let us know your thoughts in the news forum here.