Milpitas, California-based Read-Rite Corp has agreed with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop giant magnetoresistive thin film heads for Winchester disk drives. The four- year agreement, under which Read-Rite and the Department of Energy will invest $24m, aims to develop and fabricate heads with storage densities of 2Gb to 30Gb per square inch. Progress has […]
Milpitas, California-based Read-Rite Corp has agreed with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop giant magnetoresistive thin film heads for Winchester disk drives. The four- year agreement, under which Read-Rite and the Department of Energy will invest $24m, aims to develop and fabricate heads with storage densities of 2Gb to 30Gb per square inch. Progress has already been made with multilayer giant magnetoresistive structures fabricated and tested as a result of this effort. Read-Rite’s new facility in Fremont, California will be the centre for the project. Its existing magnetoresistive heads are currently capable of storing 450Mb to 600Mb per square inch. The Laboratory said the project is an example of Department of Energy helping increase US industrial competitiveness. It appears to be competing with the giant magnetoresistive thin film head technology announced by IBM Corp in June (CI No 2,437).
