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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: flickerful who wrote (3857)	11/19/1998 7:43:00 AM
From: Glenn Perry	Respond to of 17679

"Deskstar 25GP also has the world's highest areal density (3.74 billion bits) or bits per square inch of any desktop PC hard drive. This high areal density contributes to its high reliability and performance." Being that IBM is the world's leader in pushing the storage limits, it's my guess that Quinta isn't even close to developing a production PC drive that exceeds 10 Gbit/sq inch areal density. If IBM can get only 3.74 Gbit/square inch, how is Seagate going to push this to well over three times this density? Bear in mind, a production drive has to be reliable, thoroughly tested, and also economical enough to manufacture so they can still remain competitive while making a profit. I just don't see many companies with R&D funding budgets and talent that compares to IBM. Just remember - from what I've read, (I'm no magnetic storage expert) there is concern of thermal decay when the areal density approaches 10 Gbit/sq inch. This is a factor of the storage medium and is independent of the type of recording heads used. There is still quite a way to go before reaching this limit, but as IBM gets closer, you can bet they will be focusing on solutions to this issue. It could take a few years, but Ampex's patented keepered media has been shown to reduce the chances of thermal decay and could still be used in the future. Here's the earlier post on Quinta: "Seagate anticipates that the phenomenon of losing data due to data bits being packed too close together will begin to happen when drives begin holding around roughly 20 billion bits per square inch (20 bits/in2), which could conceivably be reached by some disc drives in the next few years. In order to combat this storage technology barrier, otherwise known as the Superparamagnetic Limit, Seagate acquired Quinta, a leader in optical and magnetic storage technologies, that was developing a technology designed to successfully and reliably usher drives to capacities beyond 20 Gbits/in2. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Seagate, Quinta has begun to demonstrate storage technologies that hold great promise in potentially taking drives beyond 10 Gbits/in2, 20 Gbits/in2, and even 40 Gbits/in2-the equivalent of storing over 45 copies of the 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica & trade; in the space of a postage stamp." Where's that Terastor drive?