Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture, 5th Edition

7.10 THE FUTURE OF DATA STORAGE

No one has yet been so bold as to assert a Moore’s Law–like prediction for disk storage. In fact, just the opposite is true: Over the years, experts have periodically pronounced that the limits of disk storage have been reached, only to have their predictions shattered when a manufacturer subsequently announces a product exceeding the latest “theoretical storage limit.” In the 1970s, the density limit for disk storage was thought to be around 2MB/in². Today’s disks typically support more than 20GB/in²; in fact, Seagate has a drive with a density of 1.34Tb/in². Thus, the “impossible” has been achieved ten thousand times over. These gains have been made possible through advances in several different technologies, ...