News

posted on 06 May 2008 11:42

Hitachi GST will move into development and pilot production of bit-pattern media (BPM) hard disk drives in the second half of this year.

BPM and discrete track recording (DTR) are both technology developments enabling the areal densty of a disk drive to ncrease beyond, say, 500Gbit/sq in. The current perpendicular recording technology will soon reach an areal density limit. Both BPM and DTR represent a way past this. (HAMR - heat-assisted magnetic recording - is another.)

Hitachi GST will take delivery at the mid-year point of the first machine capable of producing double-sided BPM media, at a rate of 180 disks/hour. It is the Imprio HD 2200 from Molecular Imprints Ltd.

Mark Melliar-Smith, CEO of Molecular Imprints, said: "We developed the Imprio HD 2200 to meet the pressing needs of our disk drive customers, who must transition to patterned media applications in the near future both to increase storage capacities and reduce the cost per bit stored."

The technology it uses is low-viscosity-liquid imprinting (LVL). Previously Molecular Technologies has delivered the Imprio HD 1100 to Hitachi GST and others, enabling research into BPM and DTR technology using single-sided platters.

Molecular Technologies said it has delivered seven Imprio HD 1100s. Assuming one per hard disk drive (HDD) manufacturer we can tick off Fujitsu, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital as other likely customers. Molecular Technologies says it will deliver more Imprio HD 2200s in the second half of this year, suggesting that the world-wide HDD industry is collectively laying the foundation for full-scale BPM and DTR disk drive production. 

Ryo Suzuki, General Manager of Research and Advanced Technology for Hitachi GST, said: "Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has set in motion a series of developments to usher in patterned media innovation, which is the next big technology transition in the hard disk drive industry."

Hitachi GST needs to lead the BPM/DTR charge if it is to make good on its goal of challenging industry leader Seagate in the enterprise 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDD markets.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}