The evolution of optical data storage technologies

Today’s hard disk devices support gigantic capacities, allowing the storage of large amounts of data with high availability and safety. When we talk about storage, we usually have in mind the hard disk drives. Fixed hard disk drives offer almost everything a home or office user needs. All except an easy method of transferring data between different computer systems. Furthermore, they are not immune to magnetic field radiation and by no means can they be considered a permanent storage solution. The read signal deteriorates in a few year’s period.

But what about our everyday desktop needs for removable, reliable and economical storage? The (not too much) unexpected explosion in CD recordable/rewritable drives sales over the period of the last few years, have prompted optical media into a leading position in the removable data storage category. Optical and magneto-optical drives now offer the same alternative solutions once offered by the floppy discs, now an area occupied by Compact Disk.

Removable media technology is currently lagging fixed-storage achievements in both raw performance and price cost per available disk space offered. For example, compare the 40MB hard disks embodying the early 1990’s PCs with the 15GB per disk standard capacity of a typical system today. A 30-fold increase in available storage, with a marginal decrease in cost!

In contrast, a DVD-ROM drive typically equipping a modern PC, offers just an 8-fold available disk space increase, at about the same amount of money.

In the case of MO media technology, and during the same as before time-frame, we went from a 3.5", 128MB disk available to consumers during the first MO device shipments of Fujitsu in early 90’s, to 1.3GB disks capable drives today. Roughly the same overall capacity increase as in the case of the more commonly available optical disks.

The Fujitsu proposition

Fujitsu, Japan, is the leading manufacturer of a series of magneto-optical. Starting from the original 128MB magneto-optical (MO) media in early 90’s, it now offers modern drives capable of reading/writing media of an 1.3GB capacity, with a soon to be released 2.6GB capable drive, all the way up to a promised drive that will be able to use 9.1GB media!

However, the bigger the capacity of a removable disk and the greater its price cost is, the more it grows the user’s concern on its reliability. Fujitsu has an alternative solution for removable storage: The MCE3130 Magneto-Optical (MO) internal drive series.

According to Fujitsu, a magneto-optical disk drive, is a computer data storage device covering the most of the features and properties wanted and needed by desktop computer users. It can store large amounts of digital data - digital still photos, video clips, Internet downloads, and of course any size text files - easily, quickly and securely.

As can be seen in the side picture, the MO disk, the heart of the system, is almost the same size as a standard floppy disk. The available media capacities are 128MB, 230MB, 540B, 650MB and 1,3GB made by Fujitsu, Maxell, PDO Media, Sony, Teijin and Verbatim. A MO disk can easily store 850 times more data than a conventional 1.44MB floppy, that's 1.3GB of information in one MO disk. The 1.3GB media are based on GIGAMO, which, as explained in an earlier section, is a new 3.5-inch magneto-optical technology standard, featuring the Magnetically induced Super Resolution (MSR) technology.