Number 219 (Story #2), March 28, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and
Ben Stein| THE DENSITY OF DATA stored on magnetic hard disks has
been increasing at an annual rate of about 60% over the past few
years. If this rate is sustained, areal densities of 10 Gbit/sq
in will be achieved by the year 2001, according to Mark Kryder
of Carnegie Mellon. He and several other speakers at the APS
meeting addressed the subject of future data storage. Continued
progress depends on improved recording media. Dieter Weller of
IBM Almaden reported on his efforts to enhance the ability of
the tiny domains on the film medium to become magnetized, a
parameter called magnetic anisotropy. Working with sandwiches of
atom-thin layers of iron and platinum, Weller has produced a
film with an anisotropy ten times that of materials used in
present day hard disks. Even though the storage of data in the
form of tiny magnetic orientations on a two-dimensional film
keeps getting better, scientists continue to explore alternative
methods. Lambertus