Category Archives: Storage density

12 atoms per bit vs 35 bits per electron

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Ray

Read a story today in Technology Review on Magnetic Memory Miniaturized to Just 12 Atoms by a team at  IBM Research that created a (spin) magnetic “storage device” that used 12 iron atoms  to record a single bit (near absolute … Continue reading →

Posted in Data density, R&D measures, Storage, Storage density | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tape still alive, well and growing at Spectra Logic

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Ray

Today I met with Spectra Logic execs and some of their Media and Entertainment (M&E) customers, and toured their manufacturing, test labs and briefing center.  The tour was a blast and the customers Kyle Knack from National Geographic (Nat Geo) … Continue reading →

Posted in Storage architecture, Storage density, storage economics, Storage energy use, Tape storage | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Disk drive density multiplying by 6X

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Ray

In a news story out of Singapore Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Dr. Joel Yang has demonstrated 6X the current density on disk platter media, or up to 3.3 Terabits /square inch (Tb/sqin). And it all happens due … Continue reading →

Posted in Disk storage, Storage, Storage density, Strategic Inflection Points, System effectiveness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

IBM’s 120PB storage system

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Ray

Talk about big data, Technology Review reported this week that IBM is building a 120PB storage system for some unnamed customer.  Details are sketchy and I cannot seem to find any announcement of this on IBM.com. Hardware It appears that … Continue reading →

Posted in Clustered storage, Data, Data integrity, data logistics, data protection, Disk storage, Distributed computing, File Storage, Infiniband, Information economy, Networking, SAS, Storage, Storage architecture, Storage availability, Storage density, Storage energy use, Storage Features, Storage reliability, Strategy, System effectiveness, Systems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When will disks become extinct?

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Ray

Yesterday, it was announced that Hitachi General Storage Technologies (HGST) is being sold to Western Digital for $4.3B and after that there was much discussion in the tweeterverse about the end of enterprise disk as we know it.  Also, last … Continue reading →

Posted in Data retention, Market dynamics, Storage, Storage architecture, Storage density, storage economics, Storage longevity, Storage performance, Strategic Inflection Points, System effectiveness, Systems | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hitachi-HDS Strategy Sessions in Japan

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Ray

Went to Tokyo at HDS’s expense this week and had a great time talking with Hitachi and HDS about their current and future product portfolio. Arrived Monday evening and went out for an informal dinner.  In the photo foreground one … Continue reading →

Posted in Disk storage, Storage density, Strategy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Top 10 storage technologies over the last decade

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Ray

Some of these technologies were in development prior to 2000, some were available in other domains but not in storage, and some were in a few subsystems but had yet to become popular as they are today.  In no particular … Continue reading →

Posted in Block Storage, Cloud services, Data, Data compression, Disk storage, Ethernet, FC, File Storage, Networking, Storage, Storage Backup, Storage density, Storage Features, Storage performance, Strategic Inflection Points, System effectiveness, Systems, Tape storage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The future of data storage is MRAM

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Ray

We have been discussing NAND technology for quite awhile now but this month I ran across an article in IEEE Spectrum titled “a SPIN to REMEMBER – Spintronic memories to revolutionize data storage“. The article discussed a form of magneto-resistive … Continue reading →

Posted in Storage, Storage density, Storage longevity, Storage performance, System effectiveness, Systems | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments