People are often told not to use strong magnets around computers. While they shouldn't, they may not realize that strong magnets are often used inside of machines to improve storage and/or efficiency. For instance, magnetism is in computer hard disks to store data. Hard disks are just one example of a machine that uses magnetism, and in this blog post, we'll dive deep into a revolutionary example that improving data storage technology: Seagate Technology's Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology.

Seagate's Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording Technology

Thanks to Seagate, computers will be able to hold more data. HAMR technology makes more room for storage by heating the surface of a magnetic recording disk. The warmer surface is easier to write data on, which allows for a lot more space. This technology accounts for two issues that could limit the potential for data storage. One problem is that the machine grains are so close that it can impact the magnetic direction of neighboring grains. The second problem is that "it's difficult to write new data onto the hard drive if the grains are thermally very stable." According to the company, they solve these two issues by using "a new kind of media magnetic technology on each disk that allows data bits to become smaller and more densely packed than ever, while remaining magnetically and thermally stable." Then, "to write new data, a small laser diode attached to each recording head momentarily heats a tiny spot on the disk, which enables the recording head to flip the magnetic polarity of a single bit at a time, enabling data to be written. Each bit is heated and cools down in a nanosecond, so the HAMR laser has no impact at all on drive temperature, or on the temperature, stability, or reliability of the media overall." Because of this latest technology, the company can avoid these problems and store significant in hard drives. To learn more about Seagate's accomplishments to implement HAMR technology, click here. "The world is generating an astronomical amount of data annually and that data needs to be stored," said Mark Re, Seagate's chief technology officer, in a statement. "We are approaching the limits of today's recording technology and with HAMR technology, Seagate is on track to continue to increase areal density delivering hard drives with the lowest cost per gigabyte and reaching capacities of 20 TB."

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