Seagate Packs Huge Wallop on a Floppy

Continuing the digital version of the quest to find how many angels can fit on a pin, Seagate Technology Inc. today announces that it can now pack enough data on a normal floppy disk to play music continuously for more than 22 days.

The breakthrough, squeezing 23.8 gigabytes into a square inch, not only continues a string of achievements by IBM, Fujitsu, Western Digital and others, but also reinforces the notion that the current conventional magnetic technology underlying digital storage will be sufficient for some time to come.

“We’re discovering, as we have with most so-called limits, . . . that we can blow through them with modified technologies,” said John Monroe, an analyst with GartnerGroup’s Dataquest.

Previously, engineers thought that current technology would begin to top out at 20 gigabytes per square inch, Monroe said. Now, that ceiling is closer to 100 gigabytes.

The extra storage space could be used in consumer electronics to hold video, audio and still pictures. Western Digital of Irvine already has a deal with Sony to develop digital storage solutions for such products.