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Boffins crack hard drive data destruction limit

Fujitsu technology massively boosts drive capacities too, apparently

Researchers at Fujitsu have developed a new hard disk technology that they reckon will cut the likelihood of data degradation by 80 per cent. And Fujitsu's Layer Exchange Interaction Stabilised (Lexis) technology will also provide a major boost drive capacities, the company claimed this week. Lexis is essentially a new magnetic recording medium attached to the platters that make up hard drives. Hard drive media suffer from thermal effects which, over time, degrade the data they contain. And the greater the capacity of the medium, the greater the degree of degradation. Current media are limited to a data density of around 100Gb per square inch - Fujistu claims Lexis can extend that limit to 300Gb per square inch, though drives will need new, high-output read/write heads. Lexis uses a special stabilising layer fitted beneath the recording layer. The interaction between the two layers' magnetic fields stabilises the data and reduces the thermal decay effect to one fifth of that seen in traditional hard drive recording media. The upshot is, drives can either be made that hold their data better than current drives, or the capacity can be increased massively yet still offer no worse a level of data degradation than existing drives. Fujitsu says it has constructed a single-platter Lexis-based drive that provides a capacity of 78GB and a data density of 56Gb per square inch, something of a world record, the company boasts. ® Related Stories Boffins unveil 600Gb per inch non-volatile RAM Boffins unveil 'instant download' chip Big Blue boffins make big storage breakthrough Storage tech boffins to demo 140GB 'CD-ROM' US boffins develop molecular memory Gas chips to replace semiconductors, predicts boffin UK boffins unveil $35 '2300GB on a PC Card' RAM breakthrough

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