| Friday, June 26 2009 |
A company called DataSlide has decided its not time for mechanical disk drives also known as hard disk drives (HDD) to roll over and die with SSDs beating them in just about every aspect other than price. The key aspect of the new technology is that it does not require the data platter to be spun like conventional hard disk drives do. For a start this provides savings in power consumption and due to the use of magnetic recording media as found in hard disk drives should allow the hard rectanguar drive (HRD) to be cheaper than an SSD or at least provide significantly more usable space for your money. A diagram explaining the technology and the manufacturers details and specifications follow.
DataSlide's Hard Rectangular Drive (HRD) capitalizes on standard base process technologies to create a dramatically new way to store and retrieve data with magnetic media:
1. Leverage LCD process
2. Use standard HDD sputtering/plating MEMS process
3. Use HDD perpendicular media DSSC/Oerlikon-Balzers coatings
DataSlide applies technology in new, patented ways to achieve unprecedented high performance
160,000 IOPS & 500MB/sec and low power <4 Watts for a magnetic storage device:
1. A piezoelectric actuator keeps the rectangular media in precise motion
2. A diamond solid lubricant coating protects the surfaces for years of worry free service
3. A massively parallel 2D array of magnetic heads reads from or writes to up to 64 embedded heads at a time
Source: DataSlide
DataSlide's Hard Rectangular Drive (HRD) capitalizes on standard base process technologies to create a dramatically new way to store and retrieve data with magnetic media:
1. Leverage LCD process
2. Use standard HDD sputtering/plating MEMS process
3. Use HDD perpendicular media DSSC/Oerlikon-Balzers coatings
DataSlide applies technology in new, patented ways to achieve unprecedented high performance
160,000 IOPS & 500MB/sec and low power <4 Watts for a magnetic storage device:
1. A piezoelectric actuator keeps the rectangular media in precise motion
2. A diamond solid lubricant coating protects the surfaces for years of worry free service
3. A massively parallel 2D array of magnetic heads reads from or writes to up to 64 embedded heads at a time
Source: DataSlide
User comments
Interesting stuff. Lets hope it lives up to the hype... :)
At that scale i'd call this an SSD... with 64 sectors, it is just as complicated or even more complicated than SSDs to manage, and they don't seem to mention that.
by: tkpenaltyIt's not Solid State though.
At that scale i'd call this an SSD...
by: InnocentCriminal
It's not Solid State though.
Considering the fabrication process its almost solid state. I'd think it would be wiser to produce magnetic memory semiconductors that use a platter for the memory. But atm, this would NOT be cheaper to produce. I dont know how 64 heads are supposed to communicate with the system without a RAID-like setup inside; its 64 Hdds in one hdd.
This isnt reinventing the wheel, this is using caterpillar legs instead.
So, wait.. are these better than SSD's or in between HDD's and SSD's?
by: Weersounds very "in-between" for me...
So, wait.. are these better than SSD's or in between HDD's and SSD's?
Still, they rely on heads, so if the HRD suffers excessive shock, the heads will be ruined, especially if one is reading or writing, once a single head is damaged, consider that out of that sector, there will be multiple cylinders which are no longer read/writable, and who knows how it would function with a few bad heads, if the read/write rates get crippled or if its able to effectively function with bad heads out of use.
These will be a data recovery experts worst nightmare I bet, I do hope these are as promising as the pictures state, high speed, cheap, large storage, my god, if it were true you would just buy like six and raid 0 +1 them together and never have to worry about speed/performance or capacity for a very long time.
These will be a data recovery experts worst nightmare I bet, I do hope these are as promising as the pictures state, high speed, cheap, large storage, my god, if it were true you would just buy like six and raid 0 +1 them together and never have to worry about speed/performance or capacity for a very long time.
This tech was being touted 1 or 2 years ago. Is it nearly ready to hit the stores would be question I would ask?
It would be great to see it out soon as the more competition (faster speeds/density) the better the pricing should be.
It would be great to see it out soon as the more competition (faster speeds/density) the better the pricing should be.
I“ve heard about this technology about FIVE YEARS ago (I swear!) and I was wondering when anything new about this would appear in the media. Aha, finally in 2009...
I'll take a Zune HD with a side of nVidia Tegra, multitouch, OLED, and a 200GB HRD please :)
by: DanishDevilyou forgot wireless N w/ wireless HDMI
I'll take a Zune HD with a side of nVidia Tegra, multitouch, OLED, and a 200GB HRD please :)
Well luckily, it will have WiFi (G most likely) and HDMI through a dock, but other than the HRD, everything is confirmed as specs for the 16GB starting between $250 and $300. But this is a thread about the confuzzling HRDs. I'm just saying if these prove to be the true HDD killers, they would be GREAT in portable media players :)
by: Black HadesDiamond as a material property has one of the lowest friction surfaces known. Diamond also has one of the highest heat conductivities known. Also a very good electrical insulator, and it's opne the the hardest materials also.
It states on their site:
"A diamond solid lubricant coating protects the surfaces for years of worry free service"
It cant be a paste because nothing is more abrasive as loose diamond particles. That's what they coat on power cutting tool blades. Kind of not the effect one would want on a sensitive magnetic media.
Also even if on a molecular level the diamond coating is perfectly plane, heat still occurs because of fast moving tangent surfaces. Where there's heat there's entropy.
It does have drawbacks of course: It's expensive to make, and it generally requires high temperatures to deposit which is often bad for what you to put it on and can cause high stress in the material at room temperature.
by: Black HadesWith 1 head per sector? Yes, it's a good idea from a performance perspective, but I see too many moving parts. I'd be surprised if this becomes reality, and if it does... it won't be like sliced bread.
Well I guess you CAN reinvent the wheel after all:)
EDIT:
It still vibrates, the media platter moves, and more than before it's in direct contact with lubricant solid matter...that concerns me because there is no such thing as 0% friction and heat and wear and tear could still occur. But what do I know I'm not an engineer.
I hope it doesnt hum or even worse buzz :p
I would want one working example...
This is some amazing stuff. It looks quite promising, can't wait until it's on the Egg. ^_^
in the fourth picture they say "HDD reliability or better"
by: SuijinA couple years ago I read about a new technique for making synthetic diamonds that is supposed to be drastically cheaper than traditional methods. I wonder if that is the process being used in this case.
Diamond as a material property has one of the lowest friction surfaces known. Diamond also has one of the highest heat conductivities known. Also a very good electrical insulator, and it's opne the the hardest materials also.
It does have drawbacks of course: It's expensive to make, and it generally requires high temperatures to deposit which is often bad for what you to put it on and can cause high stress in the material at room temperature.
I could be mistaken, but isn't there a diamond based TIM on the market?
by: MopeyMartianthere is. but its performance is pretty crap compared to the good pastes, like AS5 and MX2.
I could be mistaken, but isn't there a diamond based TIM on the market?
Finally. Something afordable that can beat my Seagate 7200.10RPM :rockout: I really hope the high capacity ones are cheap!!!!
i dont care what it is or how it works just that it loads my data faster and transfer rates are much improved because data is getting larger and it needs to keep up with speeds
SSD is just a huge SD card lol maybe not exactly the same but same principles
i want programs to load faster and load times in programs reduced
someone explain how it works is it like hundreds of heads reading or something?
SSD is just a huge SD card lol maybe not exactly the same but same principles
i want programs to load faster and load times in programs reduced
someone explain how it works is it like hundreds of heads reading or something?
by: KieranDthe only way i can comprehend it, is that instead of one large circle, you get lots of small squares. many many heads that dont move (say, 16 per 'platter') - they dont cover the whole area, but with the platter being able to move small amounts each one covers enough area that the whole thing can be read in one combination or another.
i dont care what it is or how it works just that it loads my data faster and transfer rates are much improved because data is getting larger and it needs to keep up with speeds
SSD is just a huge SD card lol maybe not exactly the same but same principles
i want programs to load faster and load times in programs reduced
someone explain how it works is it like hundreds of heads reading or something?
get enough of em together, and you can read massive amounts of data simultaneously.
seriously, i could be totally tripping on this. its rather late/early in the morning here.
Wow, cool tech but it still remains to be seen how well it works. I sure hope it can live up to the numbers they tout and that it gets a reasonable price.
by: ShadowFoldYea but almost anything now beats a 7200.10 on the cheap...
Finally. Something afordable that can beat my Seagate 7200.10RPM :rockout: I really hope the high capacity ones are cheap!!!!
But not enough to make me upgrade