




Longitudinal recording places the magnetic grains that store data flat along the disk platter, which takes up a larger amount of surface area than perpendicular recording, which works on the principle of skyscrapers: more bits can be stored per square inch if the grains are aligned vertically, rather than sprawled across the surface of the disk.

"For the last fifty years, we've used longitudinal recording to store information across the surface of the disk," Hall said. "Now, we've made the leap to perpendicular, and we've increased the storage by 50 percent."

Read the rest of this article on ExtremeTech: "Seagate Ships 750-GB Drives; Externals Due Next Week"