Hitachi Breakthrough Could Mean 4TB Disks By 2011

[lukechip]

WOW... although totally un-necessary that would be awesome!

I DARE someone to fill up a 4TB drive.

Of course thats what used to be said about 4gb drives too

From what I understand of Time Machine, that might be quite possible. Since it is taking hourly, daily and weekly snapshots of any files that are altered on your system, I can see scenarios where this could result in massive storage requirements. In particular

-iMovie / iDVD. Large video files that are being cropped / edited, or iDVD projects which are being worked on, could result in GB of backup every hour
-VMWare Fusion Virtual Machines. I'm likely to have around 10 of them running on my Mac at any time (dev studio, SQL box, web/application server, domain controllers, clients) and each is a 10 GB machine. They are constantly changing, so every hour Time Machine would want to take a 100 GB backup. That is 2.4 TB over 24 hours !!

Of course, I'll have to tell Time Machine to skip my VMs for now, since my 500 GB external backup drive would last all of 12 hours....

Not so sure about iMovie / iDVD projects ?

 

[winterspan]

wow, that's really alot, but i would prefer too see a flash drive of 120 GB in 2011!

LOL. You can already buy a 128GB one NOW in 2007 with a 256GB just around the corner. Just gotta fork out some cash. I think a better idea is to get one of those cheaper 64GB SSDs from DELL and add it along with a 250GB 2.5" HDD and you'd have a quick a$$ laptop. Just put your OS and all your apps on the SSD.

 

[winterspan]

I loved those 100MB disks when they came out. They beat the living dung out of SyQuest's crappy 44/88MB drives and were a fraction of the cost of MO-drives. But soon I grew tired of Iomega to the point that now, in retrospect, I can safely say good riddance. Wait... they still exist?

Remember the Iomega Jazz drive? wasn't it a 1GB or 2GB disk? Those were great! and the zip 250! oh the days... kids in school now put at least twice that on their keyring to carry around documents... No more "let me pull out my Iomega BRICK to get that excel file" lol

 

[winterspan]

You are assuming we havent had any new interface technologies come to light at that point... I would certainly hope (and forsee) that we would have faster internal and external speeds in the next couple years for home computers... as fiberchannel drives / interfaces are quite fast... but very expensive for a home user!

It's not the interface, its the drives for now. But in 4 years with 4TB drives @ 10K RPM that may change. I mean we already have SATA and eSata at 300MB/s and soon SATA/600MB. Its going to take some time before single or dual RAID drives can saturate a SATA 600 link, and by then Im sure they'll move to SATA 1200 or some future interface. I think Fiber Channel will still be relegated to big corporate SANs, etc.

 

[winterspan]

i think you've hit upon the big problem with this

before this announcement we were all dreaming of a flash based laptop because of the speed of the storage with HDD's is stupifyingly slow.

now you're offered larger HDD's which will take the same speed to move files around...which means it'd take days to back up a 4TB HDD

i'll give you a choice

in 2011
- 1TB HDD laptop
- 64GB (perhaps 128GB even) Flash Memory laptop

64GB SSD laptop in 2011?? A 64GB SSD from dell is already somewhat affordable and I'd imagine the 128GB drives will be in the premium gamer laptops in the next 7-9 months.

I'd hope in 2011 that at least 256GB drives will be commonplace in premium laptops.

 

[winterspan]

Gigabyte (1000^3) != Gibibyte(1024^3)

My point is, haven't we advanced in technology to get rid of that, all that extra crap and is stored on our hard drives?

For the last time people the HDD capacity listed on the harddrive box is measured in TRUE gigabytes, not Gibibytes.
a GIGABYTE (1000^3) IS NOT A GIBIBYTE (1024^3).
They advertise the drive in Gigabytes in base 10, but your computer runs in base 2 so your computer actually works with Gibibytes (2^30). It is sort of misleading, but only because of the colloquial mainstream use of "gigabytes".
You only have to learn this fact ONCE and then you won't be all pissy each time you buy a new HDD.

 

[winterspan]

This is the first step to HD content in the iTS. By 2010 bandwidth and space will be enough for Apple to offer HD, before I kind of doubt it. Anyway, cool beans.
When my notebook can hold all my songs in Lossless that will be the day that I celebrate. Until then I'll live with my measly 200GB.

what? 2010? Bandwidth and space at their present levels is easily enough for compressed H264 720P content. Why do you think there are already a few services offering said content. Where I live currently, I had to scale back to a 1.5 megabit wireless ISP connection, and even I can easily download TV episodes in 720P in a reasonable amount of time. Is it enough for a low-compression 1080P stream with Lossless 7.1 Audio? Probably not.. but 720P with dolby 5.1 would work just fine right now with Itunes. I'd even bet Apple will roll it out in spring 08 or sooner.

 

[killerrobot]

I dunno, I was actually hoping for less fanfare and efforts into the hard disk drive arena and more development and excitement in the solid state disk arena.
I thought that standard hard drives would be declining in technological development over the next 4-8 years with an increase in technological upgrades in flash and other drives.
Looking forward to the day when my OS and storage drives are NOT the weakest link in my machine.

I completely agree. I´d much rather have a 200 gb flash drive that´s not going to go bust on me and make me loose 4TB of data.
I wonder how many busted HDs are filling up landfills as we speak.

 

[Diatribe]

what? 2010? Bandwidth and space at their present levels is easily enough for compressed H264 720P content. Why do you think there are already a few services offering said content. Where I live currently, I had to scale back to a 1.5 megabit wireless ISP connection, and even I can easily download TV episodes in 720P in a reasonable amount of time. Is it enough for a low-compression 1080P stream with Lossless 7.1 Audio? Probably not.. but 720P with dolby 5.1 would work just fine right now with Itunes. I'd even bet Apple will roll it out in spring 08 or sooner.

Well, considering that a 90 min. movie would be around 4GB I don't know what you consider a reasonable amount of time. And storing 4-5GB movies with the current 120GB standard HDs would leave most people with 10 movies at the most before their HDs are full.

I don't consider that being ready. And besides offering everything in HD would quadruple Apple's server needs.

As I said I see this coming in 2010. If we're really lucky in 2009.

 

[winterspan]

You are taking a very limited view of an Ipod

Oh, wow! You are absolutely right. Uncompressed music has a bitrate of about 10 megabytes/sec. At those bitrates, you'd only be able to hold 25,000 songs on a 1TB iPod. That would be absolutely paltry and an insult to my character. Also, in order to tell the difference between 128kbit AAC and uncompressed music with headphones, they need to include $400 headphones with the 1 TB iPod as well. I'm going to rate this story a double negative!

First of all, many people use their Ipod as a portable CD collection in their homes, in their cars, etc, where lossless vs 192kbps compressed is EASILY distinguished. Not everyone is on the schoolbus with headphones.
Add to this SACD/DVD-Audio and other 5.1 surround audio (live concerts, etc) in lossless.

Secondly, you are ignoring all the other capabilities of the ipod. Do you like to carry around 100 DVDs in your pocket when you travel? A large capacity ipod makes an excellent DVD player with Full DVD quality movies with their original 5.1 audio.

I haven't even mentioned HD material. Have you seen the capacity requirements for a season of a HD 720P TV show? Easily 10GB or more.
2 hour 1080P movie with 5.1 lossless surround? 25+ GB.

See my point?

 

[winterspan]

Am I the only one who's still using an 80Gb IDE drive for my pc? I know I should've upgraded a long time ago, but 80 is about all I need(although many others definately need more than that).

But on the other hand I have to burn dozens of DVDs every month

no response necessary... see emphasis above ...

 

[winterspan]

Not a conspiracy, just free market economics

i think the reason why they havent put more emphasis on the flash memory is that the HDD companies want to exhaust all the loot from the HDD's as they can, then move on to the next thing. if they make flash cheap, it wipes out any r&d return they would get. i gaurantee they can make flash cheap, just too greedy, but i guess that capitalism for ya. again, thats just my theory.

Hard disk manufacturers and Flash manufacturers ARE NOT THE SAME COMPANIES. The technology is totally different, and the patents are held by different companies. It's not a conspiracy to keep flash from succeeding, it's just supply and demand.
They are competing with each other, and the free market dictates where the R&D goes. As long as HDD manufacturers can keep the schism in capacity and $/MB with regards to flash memory, they will keep making the tech and doing new R&D. If flash comes within a certain capacity and price/capacity-unit threshold, then alot of the market will shift to flash SSD and the HDD will start to be phased out as the money will dry up. Same as every other industry.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Well the days of regular HDs in iPods are gone anyway, this is only interesting for laptops and desktops.
Hopefully they'll be at 64GB end of next year.

At which point I crack Fairplay and drop the iPod. the simple fact is music + movies == a crap load of space. If Apple can't realize that fact then they will loose out in the long run.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

I really can't imagine needing 1TB in an iPod.

 

[Diatribe]

At which point I crack Fairplay and drop the iPod. the simple fact is music + movies == a crap load of space. If Apple can't realize that fact then they will loose out in the long run.

I agree with you, the problem isn't only Apple though. The problem is battery technology. With current technology the iPod touch or the iPhone wouldn't last 3 hours with real HDs. I'd love more space as much as the next guy but the batteries aren't up for it currently.

 

[Diatribe]

I really can't imagine needing 1TB in an iPod.

You're getting old...

 

[MacsAttack]

Actual HDD manufacturers... I think there is about fiver:
(1) Western Digital
(2) Samsung
(3) Hitachi (which bought IBMs division)
(4) Seagate
(5) Maxtor (I think... I could be wrong on this one. If isn't the top four I don't really trust them)

I don't know if there are any other actual hard disk drive manufacturers out there.

Segate bouth Maxtor. Now I'm just waiting for someone (Hitachi?) to scoop up WD. Fijitsu is still out there making laptop drives and stuff, and Samsung are entering the market with their SSD offerings. SSD is about to take off big time - some of the traditional HD manufacturers are looking at getting into the market. Samsung have an edge right now - for obvious reasons.

Once they get a 128MB SSD drive that works in my Mac Book down to £250 - I'm buying it... My Mac Pro will just have to make do with 3GB internal storeage and another 2GB external backup on old spinny disks.

 

[cwryn]

I'd love the space. Then I could actually keep HD movies on my pc and lossless music.

That and I could get rid of the external 500 gb hd I have wedged between my blacbook and my old hp.

 

[winterspan]

Have I got the DEAL for you!

Segate bouth Maxtor. Now I'm just waiting for someone (Hitachi?) to scoop up WD. Fijitsu is still out there making laptop drives and stuff, and Samsung are entering the market with their SSD offerings. SSD is about to take off big time - some of the traditional HD manufacturers are looking at getting into the market. Samsung have an edge right now - for obvious reasons.

Once they get a 128MB SSD drive that works in my Mac Book down to £250 - I'm buying it... My Mac Pro will just have to make do with 3GB internal storeage and another 2GB external backup on old spinny disks.

I'll even knock £50 off it! I will sell you a 128MB SSD drive that is HFS+ formatted for your mac book for only £200! And while I'm at it, Ill also sell you an upgrade for that Mac Pro to DOUBLE your internal storage to 6GB for another £100! contact me and I'll set something up on ebay!

 

[SactoGuy18]

I really can't imagine needing 1TB in an iPod.

I think given the form factor of the iPod classic 160 GB and iPod Touch, the maximum you'll expect for a hard disk-based iPod will be around 250 GB maximum. By 2010, expect video-capable iPods to have as much as 160 GB of flash memory.

 

[queshy]

You would have to steal a LOT of music to get 1 TB! lol jks

 

[jellomizer]

Not a breakthrew just normal progression...

Well lets look at some historical Data....
When I got my MB Pro last year the high end option was 200GB Drive.
5 years before that I got My PowerBook it was 40GB (5 times Less)
5 years before that High End Laptops could be up to 6 GB (5 times less)
So 4 years from now using the same trends we should be at 1 TB. No Big deal.

 

[72930]

I think given the form factor of the iPod classic 160 GB and iPod Touch, the maximum you'll expect for a hard disk-based iPod will be around 250 GB maximum. By 2010, expect video-capable iPods to have as much as 160 GB of flash memory.

That would be awesome, but still not enough...

 

[~Shard~]

I realize flash is now becoming a viable storage alternative to hard drives, but when will we see further technological advancements to take us to that next level, in terms of holographic storage and the like? Or more accurately, when will these new technologies be feasible?

What I'm getting at is that perhaps 10 years from now we will indeed have 500TB storage devices, however I have my doubts whether they will be hard drive based...

 

[weckart]

Actual HDD manufacturers... I think there is about fiver:
(1) Western Digital
(2) Samsung
(3) Hitachi (which bought IBMs division)
(4) Seagate
(5) Maxtor (I think... I could be wrong on this one. If isn't the top four I don't really trust them)

I don't know if there are any other actual hard disk drive manufacturers out there.

Fujitsu was mentioned. You can also add Toshiba to the list. That is about it. Maxtor will soon go the way of Connor and Quantum after being subsumed within Seagate, and Hitachi is thinking of throwing in the towel.

Of course, once capacities for flash memory ramp up, the names will change again.