Hitachi Global Storage Technologies plans on building harddrives using "perpendicular recording" technology that it says could allow for 1TB desktop drives and 20GB microdrives. The terabyte milestone is still a ways off, however, as Hitachi estimates the new drives won't reach consumers until 2007.

Currently, harddrives use a recording method that stores magnetic particles for data in parallel to a disc's surface. Drives using parallel recording can store about 100 to 120 gigabits per square inch. With the new perpendicular method, Hitachi claims drives can store 230 gigabits in the same space.

The technology gets its name from the vertical alignment of data bits on the plane of the disk, which takes less room in contrast to the horizontal orientation of today's longitudinal recording technology. To be accurately recorded and read, the more closely-packed perpendicular bits also require a closer association between the read/write head and the recording media. Hitachi achieved the 230 Gb/in2 density by manipulating the head and media so that the distance between them is a mere 10 nanometers or 1/10,000th of a human hair.

While the harddrive industry has been using longitudinal recording successfully for five decades, it is now within two product generations of reaching its practical limit. Researchers are finding that longitudinal recording is losing its ability to maintain data integrity at densities much beyond 120 Gb/in2.

"We are at the cusp of the most significant harddrive technology transition of the past decade, and it's one that holds so much promise for the harddrive and consumer electronics industries," said Jun Naruse, CEO, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "As the biggest supplier of small-form-factor harddrives, 2.5-inch and below, consumers' demand for storing more data on smaller devices has provided a strong impetus for us to pursue perpendicular recording with a greater sense of urgency."

While the transition to perpendicular recording will start as early as the next product generation, Hitachi believes the true potential will be realized in the 200+ Gb/in2 range - the point of technology maturation when meaningful advancements in storage capacity will ensure full-scale adoption of perpendicular recording technology.