Called the “A-Drive”, it is 5mm thick, or 30 per cent thinner than existing hard disk drives, and is targeted for use in tablets, ultrabooks and future data centres.
Typically, existing 7mm-thick hard disk drives have a storage capacity of 500 gigabytes.
The “A-Drive” will provide storage capacities of up to 1 terabyte from the magnetic spinning disks, and 32 gigabytes from flash memory technology.
The “A-Drive” has numerous potential applications in the consumer and enterprise computing industry.
It can fit into tablet devices, greatly expanding storage space while extending battery life by up to 30 per cent.
It will also be a cheaper alternative to the flash memory drives used in some ultrabooks.
Ultrabooks are a category of mini notebook computers designed to provide similar or superior computing functionality as that of a standard laptop but are smaller, lighter and have an extended battery life.
In the area of enterprise storage applications, the device can help data centres optimise space and reduce power consumption by up to 50 per cent.
The “A-Drive” has been developed by a team of researchers from the Data Storage Institute (DSI) of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
The researchers developed a proprietary axial field motor, which reduces power consumption by up to 70 per cent, yet is cheaper than drives deploying flash memory technology.
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