How
cool is this?
Western Digital have come
up with a hard disk with a see through cover. Check
it out (especially the movie)
Apparently it took two years of development, but here’s the challenge they set out
to beat:
Underground modders have attempted for years in their garages to customize
their hard drives with clear tops to see the precision mechanical components reading
and writing like mad while they power through the latest game or demanding application.
However, tolerances are so tight and materials so technologically advanced inside
the drive that even the slightest speck of dust or gaseous contaminants, or disruption
of the delicate and balanced drive ecosystem, destroys the drive, not to mention all
the data. Keep in mind that read/write heads at the end of the actuator arm, which
flip-flops the polarity of the magnetic particles on the disk surface, literally flies
over the 10,000 RPM surface at one two-thousandth the width of a human hair. Assembly
must be conducted in a world-class cleanroom. And only a world-class group of mechanical,
electrical, chemical and magnetic hard drive engineers can design a top and choose
the right materials to ensure reliable performance in the most demanding conditions.
Aimed predominently at the people with transparent cases (I don’t have one of these),
I’d love to have one of these to play with.