2. Helium Drives
● Helium-filled hard drives use helium instead
of air to spin the disks, the disk will spin
more easily and use a lot less power to spin
● They run cooler and can use more disks
than a regular hard drive.
● Western Digital and Seagate have both
announced helium-filled harddrives to the
public.
3. Shingled Magnetic
Recording (SMR)
● SMR is a new technology being used in
hard drives, it acheives a higher areal
densities by squeezing track closer together
● Tracks are overlapped (like roof shingles)
allowing more data to be written.
● Allows more capacity than regular hard
drive.
4. DNA
● Human molecules could be used to store
information.
● Harvard researchers in 2012 were able to
encode DNA with digital information.
● DNA could potentially store a whopping 2.2
petabytes of info. Per gram.
● A DNA hard drive the size of a teaspoon
could fit all the world data on it!
5. Holographic Disks
● A new and innovating DVD-sized disk that
could store upto 500 gigabytes
● The disk crams data onto layers and layers
of tiny holograms
● Unlike DVD this disk would not really on just
the surface but in many layers of the disk.
6. Heat-Assisted magnetic
recording
● An innovating new magnetic storage technology
● Small laser is used to heat the disk that is being
written on.
● Heat reduces coercivity, allowing the laser to write
with higher effieciency
● Not currently on the market, Seasgate has plans to
demonstrate its potential in the near future.
7. Underwater data center
● Microsoft unveilved project Natick, an ongoing
research effort into deep-sea data centers.
● While it may seem very expensive, the project
could actually be cost effective and
environmentally friendly.
● Storing data centers underwater could help keep
components cool and allow for spacious placing
of data centers.
8. Cloud Storage
● Already being used in present day but the capabilities in
the future are endless.
● Essentially storing data on multiple serves and data
centers which can be accessed over the web or on a
smartphone.
● Cloud Storage eliminates the need for a physical form of
storage.
● Potential concerns relating to safety of stored
information and potential to be hacked or have
information lost.
9. Solid State Drive (SSD)
● Also currently being used in present day the SSD uses
no moving mechanical parts.
● Beneficial over regular hard drives due to no spinning
disk or moveable read/write heads.
● SSD allow data to be written and read at a much more
efficient and faster rate.
● Currently SSD cost more than an average hard drive but
in the near future SSD could become more common in
households and in computers in general.
10. Cassette Storage
● Aren’t cassettes a thing of the past? Well yes but
Fuji film and IBM have been improving the
standard for the cassette
● The new and improved cassette could potentially
store 35 terabytes of data!
● Cassette are slower than even a regular hard drive
● Fuji and IBM are develping a cassette that could
potentially store upto 100 terabytes.
