Setting the stage for further consolidation in Japan's electronics sector, Toshiba is in talks to buy Fujitsu 's hard-disk drive unit.
For decades, hard-disk makers have been shrinking the electromagnetic media that store data to cram more information into a tinier footprint.
The technology, called RAID (redundant arrays of independent disks), involves clever algorithms for dealing out data among an assortment of hard-disk platters.
The team is already thinking of applications for metamaterials as read-heads for future generations of hard-disk drives or optical modulators for communications.
Shares in Toshiba climbed 1.4% after the firm said it would sell its Thailand hard-disk-drive manufacturing subsidiary to U.S. peer Western Digital Corp.
Retrieving and storing data from a hard-disk drive takes one million times longer than accessing it from server memory, a difference that can severely degrade application performance.
Fujitsu is eager to shed its loss-making hard-disk drive business, in order to focus on gaining ground against formidable rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard in information technology services consulting.
Fujitsu, for example, hopes to unload its loss-making hard-disk business, but it recently took full control of a joint-venture to sell computers as part of a push into computer-related services.
Over the past two years, the company has made a "spin down" feature for hard-disk boxes, where if the TV has not been in use for several hours the disk rests.
Apple, for example, has also frustrated hard-disk drive makers by featuring solid state drives across its line of notebook computers and eliminating spinning disks in the MacBook Air, its thinnest, lightest model.
Seagate (STX) and Western Digital (WDC) shares are trading higher this morning after Citigroup analyst Joe Yoo picked up coverage of the hard-disk drive makers with Buy ratings on both.
FORBES: Disk Drives: Time To Buy Seagate and Western Digital, Citi Says
He is critical of the UBS ETN, meanwhile, for basing itself on an index of 11 constituents, most of which are companies that make, among other things, a type of hard-disk drive currently in vogue.
The center incorporates advanced video processing calibrated to the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) color standards recently adopted by most Hollywood studios and distributors, as well as removeable-hard-disk data storage to accommodate multiple DCI-standard motion picture titles ready for immediate playback.
ENGADGET: SIM2 tag-teams with Entertainment Experience to bring you movies on hard drives
Xyratex and Intevac shares are both trading sharply higher, in anticipation that the producers of hard-disk drive manufacturing equipment could be a beneficiary from the troubles now plaguing the drive business due to the recent devastating floods in Thailand.
Evercore Partners analyst Kirk Materne this afternoon trimmed his EPS estimates for Microsoft for the next couple of quarters to reflect the current shortage of hard-disk drives that has resulted from the recent Thai floods, plus lower gross margin assumptions to reflect increased investment in services and online and a greater revenue contribution from the entertainment and devices segment.
FORBES: Microsoft: Evercore Trims Estimates For HDD Shortage
The 4420 will also offer "random erase technology" that lets you use a CD-RW disc just like a floppy or hard disk -- adding or deleting individual files at any time.
But in the course of first copying the contents of the hard disk-a seemingly sensible precaution-they triggered the hidden program that irrevocably destroyed them.
As I wrote when I looked at Brookstone's hard disk-based SongCube last fall, there are many advantages to using a "sync and store" scenario for digital content devices on a home network.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Covello this morning trimmed his EPS estimates for Intel to reflect the expected impact on the company from the restricted supply of hard disk-drives as a result of the severe flooding in Thailand.
FORBES: Intel: Goldman Trims Estimates On Impact Of Thai Floods
The popular Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iPod comes with a 160-gigabyte hard disk.
It is also a vital component of high-voltage wires, magnetic coatings for high-density hard disk drives, fiber optics, fiberglass, catalytic converters and spark plugs.
If you're already running Windows 98 SE or Windows Me on a system with a 933-MHz or faster processor and a large-cache hard disk, Microsoft recommends you check with your PC vendor about availability of the patch.
Due to the lower cost per GB of a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, the Archos tablets will offer 250 GB of storage for about the same price as 32 GB of flash memory on a current generation tablet computer.
We test each drive with a Micron 433-MHz Celeron system equipped with 64MB of SDRAM, a 10GB hard disk, and a DVD-ROM drive.
How about eight-window simultaneous multi-display, an Opera-based web browser, DLNA, and a 3TB hard disk drive, 2TB for "time-shift" recording recording up to 26 hours of programs, up to eight channels simultaneously.
ENGADGET: Toshiba details CELL REGZA LCD TV, coming December to Japan (update: video!)
Indeed, this bargain Zeos comes with a paltry half-megabyte memory and a 42-megabyte hard drive, and lacks a floppy disk drive for the new 3-inch disks.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, and innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world's most valued data.
ENGADGET: Hitachi GST's G-Drive Slim: world's thinnest 2.5-inch external hard drive
It appears like that Toshiba will end up with 15-20% of the hard disk drive market in unit shipments as a result of the Seagate and Western Digital acquisitions.
FORBES: Toshiba Makes Strategic Partnerships In Order to Compete in Hard Disk Drives
It's underpowered, has a too-tiny screen and needs a hard disk, Gates says.
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