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Technology Stocks : Veeco Instruments-Who? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carl R. who wrote (2605)	1/2/2000 9:00:00 PM
From: All Mtn Ski	Respond to of 3069

Some GMR info from this article: Message 12439176 "The key factor behind this was the appearance of the giant magneto-resistive (GMR) head. Although it significantly boosts recording density, the GMR head costs about the same as the MR head. The price difference between MR and GMR heads is less than US$1, and the next generation of heads have been estimated to have a price difference of under 10%. The major manufacturers who were slow to switch to MR heads in their low-priced drives are now jumping on the GMR bandwagon. New GMR products have already been announced this year by Maxtor Corp, Western Digital (both of the US), and Quantum. When the latest GMR heads are used, they enable a change in the methods used to lower costs. Because recording density is boosted significantly compared with that offered by MR heads, per-platter capacity rises. This means that fewer components are needed to make a HDD with a given capacity, thus reducing cost. In other words, achieving lower production cost in advance of the competition is coupled with the benefit of offering the highest recording density in the industry. This is a technique that was unthinkable back in the days when the MR head offered a new high in recording density, but it is being put into practice by Quantum. Areal recording density has been boosted about 35% over existing products, making it possible to provide 20 Gbytes of capacity on three platters instead of four, and a major decrease in cost. Now that the appearance of the GMR head has made it possible to manufacture cheaper products, there is no need to use previous technologies. From now on, it is the most advanced technologies which will win in the arena of price competition. "The key factor in improving the GMR head lies in increasing the sensitivity of the spin valve film built into it. In principle, all that is needed is to make the free layer of the spin valve film a little thinner, which will make it easier to change magnetic direction with low-strength magnetic fields from the disk. Because this would mean even a weak field could change the resistance of the spin valve film, it would provide better head sensitivity."