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Perpendicular recording (or Perpendicular Magnetic Recording, PMR) is a recently implemented technology for data recording on hard disk. It was first proven advantageous by Professor Shun-ichi Iwasaki of the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Japan in 1976.

Contents 1 Advantages 2 Technology 3 Implementations 4 External links

Perpendicular recording is believed to be capable of delivering up to 10 times the storage density of longitudinal recording, on the same recording media. There was some interest in using the system in floppy disks in the 1980s, but the technology was never reliable. Today there is renewed interest in using it for hard drives, which are rapidly reaching their fundamental limits. Current hard disk technology with longitudinal recording has an estimated limit of 100 to 200 gigabit per square inch due to the superparamagnetic effect, though this estimate is constantly changing. Perpendicular recording is predicted to allow information densities of up to around 1 Tbit/sq. inch (1000 Gbit/sq. inch). ^[1]

The main challenge in designing magnetic information storage media is retaining the magnetization of the medium despite thermal fluctuations caused by the superparamagnetic limit. If the thermal energy is too high, there may be enough energy to reverse the magnetization in a region of the medium, destroying the data stored there. The energy required to reverse the magnetization of a magnetic region is proportional to the size of the magnetic region (where a larger magnetic region is more stable), as well as to the magnetic coercivity of the material, there is a minimum size for a magnetic region at a given temperature and coercivity. If it is any smaller it is likely to be randomly de-magnetized. Perpendicular recording uses higher coercivity material. This is possible because the head's write field penetrates the medium more efficiently in the perpendicular geometry.

The popular explanation for the advantage of perpendicular recording is that it achieves higher storage densities by aligning the poles of the magnetic elements, which represent bits, perpendicularly to the surface of the disk platter, as shown in the illustration. In this not quite accurate explanation, aligning the bits in this manner takes less platter than what would have been required had they been placed longitudinally. So they can be placed closer together on the platter, thus increasing the number of magnetic elements that can be stored in a given area. The true picture is a bit more complex, having to do with the use of a magnetically "stronger" (higher coercivity) material as the storage medium. This is possible due to the fact that in a perpendicular arrangement the magnetic flux is guided through a magnetically soft (and relatively thick) underlayer underneath the hard magnetic media films (considerably complicating and thickening the total disk structure). This magnetically soft underlayer can be effectively considered a part of the write head, making the write head more efficient, thus making it possible to produce a stronger write field gradient with essentially the same head materials as for longitudinal heads, and therefore allowing for the use of the higher coercivity magnetic storage medium. A higher coercivity medium is inherently thermally more stable, as stability is proportional to the product of bit (or magnetic grain) volume times the uniaxial anisotropy constant K_u, which in turn is higher for a material with a higher magnetic coercivity.

Toshiba was the first company to make a commercially available disk drive (1.8") using this technology in 2005. The product is said to have suffered reliability setbacks in the consumer market. In January 2006, Seagate Technology began shipping its first laptop sized, 2.5 inch hard drive using perpendicular recording technology, the Seagate Momentus 5400.3. Seagate also announced at that time that the majority of its hard disk storage devices would utilize the new technology by the end of 2006. Other HDD manufacturers are also expected to adopt this technology rapidly.

In April 2006, Seagate began shipping the world's first 3.5 inch perpendicular recording hard drive, the Cheetah 15K.5, which provides up to 300GB storage. The drives run at 15,000 RPM and claim to offer 30% better performance than their predecessors with a data rate of 73-125 MB/s ^[2].

Also in April 2006, Seagate announced the availability of Barracuda 7200.10, a series of 3.5 inch HDDs utilizing perpendicular recording with a maximum capacity of 750 GB. [3] Drives began shipping in late April 2006, and are now available for purchase.

Hitachi promised a 20 GB Microdrive and 1 TB 3.5 inch drive by 2007 using this technology. Hitachi's first laptop drive (2.5-inch) based on perpendicular recording became available in mid-2006, featuring a maximum capacity of 160 GB.

In June 2006, Toshiba announced a 2.5-inch hard drive of 200-GB capacity with mass production starting in August, effectively raising the bar on mobile storage.

In August 2006 Fujitsu extended its 2.5-inch lineup to include SATA models utilizing perpendicular recording, offering up to 160GB capacity.

In December 2006 Toshiba said the new 100GB two-platter HDD is based on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) and was designed in the "short" 1.8-inch form factor.[4]

In December 2006 Fujitsu announced the global launch of its MHX2300BT series of 2.5-inch hard disk drives, with capacities of 250 and 300 GB.

In January 2007 Hitachi announced the first 1 Terabyte Hard Drive using the technology, set to be released in the summer. [5]

• High-resolution graphic
• Hitachi Research page
• "Get Perpendicular" A Flash animation and song explaining perpendicular recording from Hitachi Research
• Seagate Momentus 5400.3
• Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (Hardcover) by Sakhrat Khizroev, Dmitri Litvinov: ISBN 1-4020-2662-5
• Perpendicular Hard Disk Drives An article by Sean Nicholls