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SINGAPORE: Scientists in Singapore have developed a process that can increase the data recording density of hard disks six times - by using salt.
The process isw pioneered by Dr Joel Yang from the research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
He said adding
sodium chloride or salt to a developer solution used in existing
processes produced highly-defined nanostructures without the need for
expensive equipment upgrades.
Dr Yang worked with National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Data Storage Institute (DSI) researchers for this project.
A*STAR
said the discovery is akin to packing clothes in a suitcase for travel -
the neater you pack them, the more you can carry.
The
scientists used nanopatterning to closely pack more of the miniature
structures to hold information in the form of bits, per unit area.
With
this process, a hard disk drive that holds one Terabyte (TB) of data
today could in the future hold six TB of information in the same size.
- CNA/ck