Analysis of the development and performance of hard disks

Davorin Novak (2010) Analysis of the development and performance of hard disks. EngD thesis.

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Abstract

With the emergence of new technologies in the field of hard drives we can witness a significant increase of surface density and transfer rate of interfaces which, as a result, enables greater performance and reliability of hard disks. The reason for this are increasing needs for higher capacities and data transfer rate to or from the hard disk. This thesis presents the structure of hard drives, features, performance and reliability of hard drives and alternative data storage technologies. Particular emphasis is to develop technologies that contribute significantly to the reduction of magnetic domains on the plates, thereby increasing the surface density. In the first part of the thesis the development of hard disks over the years and the basic principles of their operation are examined. A detailed description of the structure of hard drives with all the components follows. The longitudinal magnetic recording, which was used in the past, and perpendicular magnetic recording, which is used today, are presented. Furthermore, the recording media - platters with their layer structure, read-write heads, sliders, arms and actuator, technology of parking read-write heads on or off the platters, spindle motor, hard disk controller, cache on the disk, the standard form factors of hard drives and different interfacesn are presented. Next the characteristics of hard disks are described, including the areal density and the record format on the hard disk. When talking about performance of hard drives, the emphasis is on the speed of data transmission, the average access time and the impact of cache on the hard disk performance. Followed by a chapter on the reliability of hard drives in anticipation of the possibility of errors on hard disks. The final chapter describes the alternative data storage technologies, including Hybrid hard drives, Heat-assisted magnetic recording, Self-Ordered Magnetic Arrays technology and Pixie Dust.

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