Seagate Debuts Perpendicular Drives

Seagate on Tuesday announced its first 3.5-inch hard disk drives to use perpendicular storage technology. The new offerings join the company's preexisting line of Cheetah drives that sport some of the fastest data transfer rates of any hard disk available.

The drives will sport data transfer rates of 73 to 125 mbps, 30 percent faster than their predecessor. Capacities of 73GB, 147GB and 300GB would be available on one, two, and four platters, respectively. Seagate is betting on perpendicular technology as a way to fit more disk capacity into a standard-sized drive.

Today's hard drives store data lengthwise across the hard-disk platter. However, with storage demands increasing, that method is meeting its limitations.

Hard disk makers say that the laws of physics will soon prevent bits of data from being stored any closer together, meaning standard drives will hit a ceiling in terms of storage capacity before their size must be increased.

In comparison, perpendicular recording drives store data like their name implies -- perpendicular to the disk platter. This method provides two benefits, say supporters. First, data is able to be stacked closer together, allowing for higer capacity. Second, data is more easily accessible, thus allowing drives with faster data transfer rates.

The Cheetah drives would be the second line of perpendicular drives from the company. Seagate began shipping its Momentus 2.5-inch drives last month in sizes ranging from 30GB to 160GB. A 1-inch drive with perpendicular recording was also introduced at 3GSM in February.