Critical Issues in High Density Magnetic and Optical Data Storage

Abstract

The data storage density of the most sophisticated magnetic storage devices available today is about 107 bits per square inch, resulting in drive capacities of 2.5 GBytes. The fundamental limits for presently understood configurations for inductive magnetic storage indicate that, in principle, an improvement of up to two orders of magnitude in bit density may be possible. Research and development in high density optical data storage suggests that a storage density of 109 bits per square inch is also possible using this approach. A comparative survey of the fundamental limiting factors, and their origins, will be given for both magnetic and optical data storage alternatives.