20gb Microdrives Coming "soon"

[speculatrix]

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/04/0...density_record/

"Hitachi reckons it has kicked the feared super-paramagnetic effect a decade into the future, by demonstrating the disk industry's highest magnetic recording density yet - 230 Gb per square inch, or 356 Mb per square mm. The demo used perpendicular recording technology, and Hitachi Global Storage Technology (HGST) said it could lead to 20GB one-inch Microdrives in two years time, compared to 6GB today."

I am SO disappointed I'm going to have to wait two years before I can buy a C3000-like device with 20GB of storage :-/

However, 16GB CF cards are beginning to appear, if you've got the money!

[technojunkie]

That's where CF is going to have microdrives by the balls. Microdrives are insanely complex compared to CF, which is just a stack of the most densely populated memory chips available.

New technologies will be slower to implement and deploy in microdrives because of complexity.  As Flash chips increase in storage, the manufacturers just order different chips and controllers and solder them to the board, and voila!! Instant capacity increase for very little additional manufacturing cost.

[BarryW]

Yea but for half the price you'll be able to buy yourself a Cray!!

[speculatrix]

Yea but for half the price you'll be able to buy yourself a Cray!!
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My Z has more memory and more CPU performance than the first VAX computer I used when I started work {cough}18 years ago, which was shared by 25 people all on serial terminals. If I had a time machine, and took my Z back in time to when I was 18, I would simply weep with depression over having to wait all these years to get my hands on a Z!

It won't be too many years before a PDA will have the performance of the very first supercomputers.

[nathanwms]

That's where CF is going to have microdrives by the balls. Microdrives are insanely complex compared to CF, which is just a stack of the most densely populated memory chips available.

New technologies will be slower to implement and deploy in microdrives because of complexity.  As Flash chips increase in storage, the manufacturers just order different chips and controllers and solder them to the board, and voila!! Instant capacity increase for very little additional manufacturing cost.
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I wholeheartedly agree with you, but what about the price?  Why are CF drives much less expensive than CF memory cards.  I did a quick search on 4gb CF and can find 4gb microdrives for about $100 less than the memory cards.

Until the price of high-end CF memory cards comes down significantly, I believe there will be a strong market for microdrives for quite awhile.

[technojunkie]

Until the price of high-end CF memory cards comes down significantly, I believe there will be a strong market for microdrives for quite awhile.
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Good point, part of it is probably demand. It seems the current popular capacity is 512MB-1GB not very many ppl have need for more than that. 6 years ago a 64MB CF card would have cost me $150-$200, now I can get the same card for less than $20. So in a couple years I'll probably be able to pick up a 2-4GB flash card for less than $80. Microdrives, as best as I can tell, are a little slower to come down in price.

[jomo]

Uhm, no.  It's got very little to do with demand.  Flash Memory is expensive.  Always has been, and MAY always be.  Flash has been "replacing" magnetic disk technology for ten years now, and has never reached a price-point where it is a practical replacement.  Flash Memory is sexy, but spinning disks really do get the job done.  People predicted no market for microdrives, but the microdrive has even infiltrated the one market where flash was always perceived as superior--mobile devices, particularly MP3.  The truth is, flash, in its way, is just as complex (wafer/IC stacking schemes, parallel/serial addressing schemes, packaging, etc.) as the spinning disk.  And the spinning disk, frankly has already been invented.  The only thing Hitachi has to do is shrink the parts, and they've already demonstrated that.  Microdrives will be here to stay until Flash begins to achieve a price-point where it can actually start to push into the laptop/desktop market in some capacity other than for super-expensive mil-spec machines.

[speculatrix]

Uhm, no.  It's got very little to do with demand.  Flash Memory is expensive.  Always has been, and MAY always be.  Flash has been "replacing" magnetic disk technology for ten years now, and has

There's a practical limit as to how small you can make fixed disk hardware, whereas flash can be packaged into tiny spaces - look at the proliferation of mini and micro-SD format cards.

I think CF flash has finally (but maybe temporarily) caught up with microdrives in capacity/price - I see 4GB flash cards on ebay for less than GBP150 (USD300) now, which is the same order of magnitude as microdrives. 8GB cards are around, and their price will inevitable fall, but perhaps not as quickly, because even with 6 and 12 megapixel digital SLRs eating card capacity in huge gulps, 4GB is a *lot* of images and I'm sure this is one of the drivers of the CF memory card market.

SD cards in *2GB capacity are appearing too, and there's no way microdrives can compete with these for power consumption or size. (*I am surprised it's taken this long to see more than a GB).


Paul