3 Terabyte hard drive possible with new technology?

Japanese hard drive maker Fujitsu has developed new technology that will increase the storage capacity of hard disk drives by up to 6 times, according to reports published in Japan today.

The company has released few details of the discovery, which greatly enhances the ability of a drive's read head to resolve data encoded magnetically on the disk surface. it is expected to reach the market within two years, according to the reports.

Fujitsu has already made progress in developing magnetic media able to store more densely encoded data. Most recently, the company described technology that would give a storage density of 1 TB per square inch, giving a theoretical 3.5-inch drive capacity of up to 5 TB. The latest discoveries appear to complement this with a read head that can interpret such finely packed data. However, Japanese press said that further research still needs to be done on the magnetic media itself.

Reports of the possible breakthrough were first carried by the Japanese-language Nikkei newspaper this morning.

Fujitsu is arguably no longer at the forefront of the desktop hard drive market – the largest drive it currently sells is a 300GB model. Market leaders are offering drives from 500GB up to 1TB. However, applying the reported six fold capacity increase even to the next generation of 500GB drives that Fujitsu is working on would yield a drive with a 3TB capacity.

Fujitsu is also active in the markets for notebook drives and enterprise storage systems.

The firm still holds an important position as a licensor of technology to other hard drive makers. Fujitsu has filed numerous patents related to GMR (Giant Magneto-Resistive) and TMR (Tunneling Magneto-Resistive) disk drive head technology.