History (1999): Seagate Demonstrates HDD Disk at 16Gb Per Square Inch

When last we checked, IBM had demonstrated 11.6Gb per square inch followed by Read-Rite with 13.5Gb per square inch with HMT.

Seagate Technology just announced that it has achieved an areal density of 16.3Gb per square inch. The latest milestone was attained using merged read-write GMR heads and magnetic thin-film, low noise, ultra-smooth cobalt alloy media, both designed and manufactured by the company.

This areal density corresponds to 380,000bpi and 43,000tpi on the disk’s surface, above which the head flies at 15nm.

During the demo, transfer rate reached 27Mb/s. Spin stand test results indicate an error rate of less than 1 in 10 million.

“This demonstrates the ability to extend our spin valve head technology and the potential to sustain high areal density growth rates into the future,” commented Seagate’s VP recording head R&D Mike Covault. 4x to 5x better than what’s currently available.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 133 on February 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.