The hard drive company’s perpendicular technology offers 160 GB of storage, which will make laptops even more attractive to buyers.
Hard disk drive maker Seagate Technologies has introduced perpendicular technology, yielding a 2.5-inch hard drive capable of storing 160 GB of data. The drive will be part of the company’s Momentus family.
On a standard hard disk platter, data bits lay flat on the surface. With the perpendicular technology in effect, those data bits stand up on the platter. That allows for more of them to be placed on a disk; more bits yields more storage.
The current buying trend of consumers selecting laptops instead of typical desktop machines for the home will be even more pronounced. Users who may have wavered on purchasing a laptop for lack of storage when compared to a desktop system will have more reason to go the notebook route.
Another benefit of the technology will be its similar power consumption and heat generation to existing drives. This will let notebook makers enjoy the greater amount of storage without seeing an impact on battery life.
Seagate also announced a security advance called Full Disk Encryption. The hardware-based FDE requires only a user key to encrypt all data on a drive. The keys and cryptographic operations reside within the drive, separate from the operating system.
FDE eliminates disc initialization and configuration required by other encryption products. If a notebook is being reassigned from one person to another, the hard drive data can be erased instantly to allow redeployment.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
