Laser Heat Used to Make HDD Write Transfers Faster

[Danra]

When will these hard drives become available?

 

[tului]

Am I the only one wondering if this could allow them to decouple the write and read processes from each other? Having the laser write array opposite the magnetic read arm would allow you to read and write from the drive at the same time wouldn't it? Maybe add some slight delay to allow the onboard circuitry to register where the writes were, but the head wouldn't be competing for either reading or writing.

 

[iamtheking123]

[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]Very interesting. But do I get this right, it will "only" speed up the writing of data, not the reading of course !?Not that faster write speeds are not appreciated !![/citation]
At this point there's no way to read a magnetic field using a laser. So yes, only write speeds could be improved. I don't think write speeds are an issue at this point anyways...it's *random* writes that are real PITAs because HDDs are tracked mediums.

 

[iamtheking123]

[citation][nom]tului[/nom]Am I the only one wondering if this could allow them to decouple the write and read processes from each other? Having the laser write array opposite the magnetic read arm would allow you to read and write from the drive at the same time wouldn't it? Maybe add some slight delay to allow the onboard circuitry to register where the writes were, but the head wouldn't be competing for either reading or writing.[/citation]
I think it was proposed a long time ago that dvd's could be burned faster if there were multiple heads doing the writing. Don't remember what was wrong with it, but clearly there was a problem otherwise we'd see it today.

 

[MrPintar14]

So these drives are going to have write speeds of 1000mb/s but only 100mb/s read speed, well if the price is right it'll be worth it

 

[Pawessum16]

Meh....it would be good for hybrid drives. No write wear on the SSD portion with ultra fast HDD writing, while still leveraging the SSD's lightening quick read capabilities. In the end, this is nothing more than a new technology that will prolong the life of HDD storage.

 

[didgetmaster]

Since hard drives are mechanical devices, there would still be seek times and rotational latency to consider in determining throughput. If there is hope for this technology using conventional hard disk design, it would lie in its ability to write more bits per square inch than magnetic write heads can do.

If you can write a million bits on a single track instead of 100,000 using today's magnetic write heads (and assuming the magnetic read head can still read the bits at that density) then you could see a 10x improvement in throughput for reading or writing just that track. You would also see benefits from fewer seeks since more of your data is likely to be concentrated within fewer tracks.

So if you can write 5-10 bits or more in the same space as you can write a single bit today, then I am very impressed with the potential of this technology. If not, I'm not sure I see the real benefit.

 

[blazorthon]

Nice to read about more possible solutions to how slow storage is. However, we have been hearing about these better storage technologies for decades, but only flash based SSDs have really come out of it for consumer storage.

We have small chips based on some of the super storage tech like MRAM, but we still don't see any devices utilizing this stuff. What is keeping them? I don't care what problems there are, there is no way that every single technology that could beat current storage isn't working yet do technical problems. Is something or someone(s) stopping them?

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]While this technology would be great for people like me who need sequential throughput, I fail to see how this would help the average person because it will still have the same seek time as other platter-based drives today. Remember, sequential throughput on a HDD is not all that bad (120-150MB/s); it is when things are not sequential that thing go to hell (30-60MB/s).Also, I find it hard to believe that it would take less power to heat a platter than to aim a small radio at it. Besides, would this not wear out the media having so many localized temperature variations? I mean, it is cool tech, but hard to believe it would work 'as advertised'.[/citation]

this tech applied to todays drive capacities allows for 10-20 times the current size. so you would be getting 40-80tb, as most people have no need for all that space, its conseveable that most people would never realisticly fill it. so the write speed would be a great improvement. and if read speed scaled with the increased size (not as much as write) we would have 1gb-2gb read speed (based on my current 1.5tb read speeds).

now if windows was installed in a way that would put a 100gb chunk in the beginning just for os and load a sequential read, the seek time would be more or less un needed, possibly makeing them faster/cheaper also than an ssd for that task...

hell if you figure people will never use all that hdd space, you could force programs to all write sequential, instead of now, where they know they cant write sequential all the time. the innital 15-30 what is it, ms seek time would be unimportant, considering you will have the choice of a 256gb ssd or a 40-80tb hdd that preform at about the same speed, but the hdd also allows mass storage. it would make a ssd a very hard sell.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

Can I get a cup of coffee with these heat lasers?

 

[blazorthon]

It heats an extremely tiny space up for a very short time. The drive shouldn't run very hot, maybe not even as hot as current drives do.

 

[tomfreak]

Does that means we dont have the driver HDD read hand? If thats the case we could have a HDD that is much more prone to shock resistance.!

 

[shqtth]

THis is not new technology. My LS-120 used laser technology to record on floppy disk. It had 120MB capacity, and fast write speeds. also I could read standard floppy disks really fast and format those at 20MB+ if I wish. THere was an LS-240 version that was to come out. Point is laster to read/write magnetic bits has been out since 1996/7.

 

[shqtth]

the LS-120 floppy was 20% faster then when it was mechanical..... so I guess hdds would have great speed increases, also since they rotate faster. And maybe rotation speed can be increased making even more speed improvements.

 

[w3k3m]

[citation][nom]shqtth[/nom]THis is not new technology. My LS-120 used laser technology to record on floppy disk. It had 120MB capacity, and fast write speeds. also I could read standard floppy disks really fast and format those at 20MB+ if I wish. THere was an LS-240 version that was to come out. Point is laster to read/write magnetic bits has been out since 1996/7.[/citation]

LS-120 has absolutely nothing to do with this tehnology. LS-120 only used laser to GUIDE a magnetic head.

 

[Guest]

Just one thing. Laser emission diodes becomes weak during the time. It means - Such HDDs will have much shorter lifetime and the risk to loose data will be much higher than for ordinary HDDs.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]scepticist[/nom]Just one thing. Laser emission diodes becomes weak during the time. It means - Such HDDs will have much shorter lifetime and the risk to loose data will be much higher than for ordinary HDDs.[/citation]

Yes, that's why my DVD writer from 2004 is working without any problems right now, as is my original playstation and some CD players from the late 90s that still see common use as they have for around two decades.

Maybe some laser diodes get weak, but it's obvious that not all do. Also, I have an old laser pointer that sees weekly use and looks no weaker than when I was first given it several years ago.

Hard drives only need to last up to five years or so for most people. I would prefer that my drives last ten years or more, but that isn't necessary. If these hard drives can't last ten years, well I guarantee that they wouldn't be sold in high volume unless they had at least a 3 year MTBF. Most people that hold on to systems for long periods of time aren't very heavy users and shouldn't have a problem keeping a 3 year MTBF drive for more than three years (most of the time, there are outliers of course).

Of course, we will have at least some of these drives being made more reliable and having at least 5 year MTBFs.

All of this is assuming we get hard drives that utilize this or a similar technology. Laser writing hard drives might never see the light of day as widely used technology.

Your claim that they won't last long enough and won't be reliable enough seems invalid.