Technical Update
Technology Update Hard Disk Drives 
A hard drive or hard disk stores all of the computer's information and retains this information when the computer is turned off. A fast hard drive is needed to supply the CPU with data as fast as it needs it. Hard drive sizes are typically measured in GigaBytes. The larger the number, the more applications and games you can have installed.
In the 1970s, computers had 14 inch hard disk drives often holding less than 10 megabytes of data and computer servers had their own rooms in offices. Fortunately, technology has evolved considerably in the last 30 years, and the rate of change has been nothing short of astonishing. Now, we have 3.5 inch hard disk drives that hold 500 gigabytes of data.
Further developments are afoot again this year in the hard disk drive arena. Manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to increase hard disk drive capacity by adding more cylinders, more disks, changing the read / write heads, etc. The market has developed to a stage where disk density is as high as it can go with the current technology, and therefore something new is required.
Introducing perpendicular recording
Perpendicular recording is a new way of storing the information on the hard disk so that it doesn't take up as much room as conventional methods, allowing ten times more data to be stored on the same size disk. It is anticipated that all manufacturers will move over to this technology during 2007. Indeed, over 16million perpendicular recording hard disk drives were shipped in January 2007 alone. You can already buy 3.5inch hard disk drives which will hold 750 gigabytes of data.
As a consequence of this new recording method, energy requirements within computers are reduced. Therefore, laptops which have the new-type hard disks in them will benefit from increased battery life. The new hard disks cost less to produce in terms of cost / capacity comparisons, so you should start to see computers on the market with an increase in capacity but for little or no additional cost.
The next generation of hard disks will incorporate HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology. Heat will be used when transferring the data to the hard disk which will help to define the tracks and reduce wastage. This cleaner recording will result in greater track density. It is expected that this technology will drive capacity in the future.
So, there are a number of fundamental changes to hard disk drive technology that you can expect to see over the next year which should result in increased performance and increased capacity computers being available to us all. Keep your eye out for these on Buying Solutions' e-Catalogue at http://online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk.
Please email us at itfw@ogcbs.gsi.gov.uk if you have any feedback regarding this article.
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