Recording performance and system integration of perpendicular magnetic recording

Abstract Perpendicular recording has been actively developed for future high-density recording system. We studied the integration of the perpendicular recording system to the hard disk drive (HDD). Double layer perpendicular media and single-pole type perpendicular head with GMR reader were employed in 2.5″ HDD. As a result of the integration test, it was confirmed that perpendicular recording 2.5″ test HDDs functioned well at the capacity of 50 GB/platter. Through the drive integration, the features of the perpendicular recording were thoroughly studied. The complementary features between perpendicular recording and longitudinal recording are also discussed.