Re-inventing the disk drive --> Magnetic scrolls
If magnetic disks are heading towards archival storage, maybe it's time to re-invent the disk drive by merging it with magnetic tape?
Magnetic tape heads can read multiple data tracks in parallel giving a higher data rate for a slower speed. Combining parallel head technology of tapes with mobile head technology from disk drives could achieve higher capacity than disks with a lower seek time than tape. The magnetic medium would be much wider than tape - like a magnetic parchment passing between two scrolls. However the scroll length would be short enough to keep the seek time to only a few seconds. The scrolls could be wound onto a single roll permitting them to be removable like a camera film. What could possibly go wrong?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
