Hard drive maker Seagate Technology claimed a new record for cramming data onto a disk, announcing a new line of 3.5-inch drives that can fit 60 gigabytes on a single platter.
Seagate"s 120GB, dual-disc Barracuda ATA V drives will be the first to support Serial ATA, a new type of connection for transferring data to and from a hard drive. Seagate will also make standard Barracuda ATA V drives.
Current drives top out at 40GB per platter, which are stacked up like flapjacks to make a complete hard drive, and density has been doubling roughly every year. But there are signs the density curve may slow a bit to keep pace with storage demand, said Jim Porter, president of research firm Disk/Trend.
"The capacities per drive are going up faster than the market has an appetite for," he said. "The industry may say, "OK, it certainly doesn"t make much sense to double the capacity per platter every year; maybe we should increase it 50 percent this year." The industry may settle on 60GB per platter this year, considering that"s enough to meet demand."