| AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division | Monday Sessions |
| Session MI+2D+EM+NS-MoA |
| Session: | IoT Session: Symposium on new Magnetic Materials, Devices and Concepts for the Information Society |
| Presenter: | Roger Wood, Western Digital |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
distances that separate atoms. For a very different perspective on data storage, each slide in the
presentation looks at things on a scale that is a factor of ten smaller than the previous slide. The
common thread is the technology of information storage. Information storage is what defines human
history and it is the machine-readable data storage developed in the last half-century that provides the
foundation of the modern information age. More than anything, data storage implies magnetic
recording and the hard disk drive. The humble Hard Disk Drive contains such exquisite technologies
and operates at such astounding precision that it almost defies belief. Yet, our industry churns out
these devices by the hundreds of millions and sells them for a few tens of dollars each. Please enjoy
this light-hearted logarithmic romp through storage technology from interstellar space to interatomic
spacings.
(The presentation is based on a talk given at the annual ASME ISPS banquet in Santa Clara, California, in June 2016, while the author was with Western Digital Corporation.)