SPHERICAL DISKS

My first thought, duhhh.. It has more surface area.. but I know this is not one of those mind popping illumination moments, so I assume you are looking at it from the stand point of with equal surface area when compared to flat 2 dimensional data device,  a spherical disk could store more data.  I would agree if we assume that we can use the sphere in new ways to store the data, but I can think of new ways that a 2 dimensional spinning disk can store additional data if we write it differently than we do today, so can you expand on your thoughts.

Ok - I'm trying to follow you here....but I'm having a hard time imagining how a sphere could be implemented as a disk.

Can you tell us more about this? You said you are researching this, are you in college?

cost/benefit would not be positive

If you have a perfect semi-sphere disk you get 2 PI()R^2 area,just  twice o a regular plate ... but

your single plate disk goes from a 1/2 inch tall  to 3- 4 inches tall

- not look even at the mechanics complexity of the servo motors

Now in a regular disk you can stack few disk at a fraction of an inch

Not so easy to stack spheres or even semi-spheres and embedd the heads to reach all the places, worst the area of each internal spheres will progresively smaller  compared to the external one

So in conclusion I bet you loose 1..20 current disk capacity/volume (speed another factor I don't want to go ) performance with a spherical solution

what we have today is the premise of 2D storage so the logical move is 3D

search for holographic storage it is available today in the market - if offers 30+ capacity than a optical  DVD disks

And in the future a 4-D maybe  by quantum or molecular arrangements/polarization etc. (3-D rotation)

Stlll I can be wrong and your inventive imagination goes beyond my confortable rational world (likewise Da-Vinci and Galileo in their times beat their times) .

Eduardo

Hi,

Its a good question & it came to my mind years back while I was studying my Masters degree.

Following is my analysis:

Yeah, if we will compare the surface area, a sphere will be having more then a disk. Its hypothetical true.

Now, when it comes to implementation... much challanged are there.

Eg.. think about 5 hollow concentric spheres as a single hard disk.

Now, how to design the actuator assembly with a common controller?

Lets assume that.. its possible.

Then,.. how to design a read/write head with one end fixed and otherend scanning the whole spherical surface? Its a structural challange.