Japan's Showa Denko KK (SDK) has become the first manufacturer in the world to put a hard drive using the perpendicular recording technique into mass production, the company claimed today.

The 1.89in platter is pitched at small, mobile devices and offers a storage capacity of 40GB, double the capacity of a platter using the traditional longitudinal recording system.

SDK also said it had begun production of a 0.85in model.

Perpendicular recording increases disk capacity by aligning the millions of magnetic domains at 90° to the disk's surface rather than parallel to it.

Almost all hard drive manufacturers are working on perpendicular product, regarded as the next stage in the evolution of the HDD. Toshiba, Seagate and Hitachi have all announced perpendicular drives, but as yet none have shipped product. Seagate, for example, is expected to ship its 160GB, 2.5in hard drive in Q4, targeting notebooks. Toshiba is expected to begin mass production of a perpendicular 1.8in, 80GB drive shortly. ®

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