Report: TDK Technology “More Than Doubles” Capacity Of HDDs

Potentially big news from The Nikkei: Japan’s biggest business daily has learned yesterday that TDK developed a technology that can “more than double” the storage space of hard disc drives. It appears TDK has developed a special laser that heats up a hard disk’s surface with a precision of a few dozen nanometers.

According to The Nikkei, TDK also changed the material used in the magnetic head and redesigned its structure to expand the recording density. As a result, more data can be stored on drives of the same size.

To be more specific, TDK’s technology apparently makes it possible to store one terabyte on one platter. The Nikkei says that TDK plans to pitch HDD manufacturers by saying a drive with two platters produced with their technology can save 1,600 hours of HD video (two weeks of HDTV content from five channels).

The company currently aims at commercializing the technology as early as next year. It has been working on expanding recording density in HDDs for years.