For over 50 years, the ingenious device we know as the hard disk drive has had a monumental effect on our daily lives. From airline reservation systems, to ATMs, to video games, digital video recorders, PCs and laptops, e-commerce and even the Internet, hard drives have enabled a variety of life-changing technologies.
But many believe the real impact of the hard drive is yet to come.
According to market watchers, 2007 would have been the year when the hard drive exploded upon a new segment—the automobile industry. Hard drives are already found in a handful of luxury cars on the road today. Their ability to store and access enormous amounts of information makes hard disk drives the technology of choice for state-of-the-art automotive stereo systems and global positioning systems
(GPS).
BETTER DRIVING EXPERIENCE
Over the past three years, hard drive companies like Hitachi Global Storage Technologies have been collaborating with automobile manufacturers and their suppliers to design, test, and incorporate new hard drives that support a better digital driving experience. To do this, engineers had to first address issues related to wide temperature variations. Unlike home and office environments where most hard drives are used today, the temperature inside the dashboard of a car could vary greatly. Engineers found that if a standard hard drive becomes extremely cold, the magnetic layers of the disks upon which information is stored would be resistant, making it difficult to record data.
On the other hand, extremely hot temperatures could also be problematic. The hard drive’s read/write head depends upon a cushion of air to ride just nanometers above the disk’s surface. As the air heats up, it gets thinner leaving fewer molecules to keep the head positioned at its proper distance. To solve this problem, Hitachi’s engineers developed Thermal Fly Height Control (TFC) technology, a mechanism that sends controlled current to the rear of the drive’s minuscule head. At low temperatures, the current heats the back end of the salt grain-sized head causing it to distort just enough to bring it closer or further away from the surface of the disk as needed.
The engineers also developed new media and motor oils that were less affected by extreme temperatures. Together with TFC and other advanced technologies, these design changes pushed the limit of hard drives from traditional devices that were designed to work in 5* to 55*C environments, to automotive super drives that perform extremely well in temperatures ranging from –30* to +85*C.
Engineers also needed to solve environmental problems related to humidity and vibration. Changes
in humidity can cause corrosion-forming condensation. Constant vibration from driving over rough terrain can cause standard disk drives to skip tracks when reading data, or overwrite neighboring tracks when writing to the disk.
Another consideration was the operating system that controls the drives. Car manufacturers need to be sure that the applications work perfectly the first time and every time throughout the life of the car. Consequently, software engineers were tasked with developing file systems and control programs that pushed the envelope for their robust, fault tolerant characteristics.
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS
Once hard drive makers proved that the newly-designed devices were ready for use in cars, a floodgate of possible applications began to develop.
For example, simple stereo systems began to give way to multi-channel audio installations. With high-end speakers, noise cancellation and room simulation features, these new audio systems offered an unprecedented in-car musical experience. There was also a demand for the type of sound quality that MP3 recordings simply could not deliver.
To help the driver better manage his in-car CD collection, automobile manufacturers are equipping cars with 20 to 30GB hard drives that allow the driver fast access to thousands of high-quality recordings. Now with storage to spare on Hitachi’s 50GB Endurastar J4K50 and N4K50 products, the hard drives also allow drivers to easily obtain detailed information about the artists and the recordings they are listening to.
GPS SYSTEMS
The availability of in-car hard drives is also pushing the limits of GPS systems. No longer contented with simple maps and illustrations, today’s GPS use real images with 3- D “helicopter perspective” of an area showing profiles of actual buildings or landmarks to help drivers find their destination. In addition, altitude and road-inclination data help find the easiest route for those traveling with a trailer or camper. These systems require more than 10GB of memory for territories in Western Europe and the United States, up from the 4.7GB used by first-generation DVD-based GPS systems.
Soon, GPS systems would be able to store information about nearby hotels and restaurants, and details about passing landmarks. Newly-built roads would be added to the map database on the go, traced with GPS precision for future consideration. With the help of satellite integration, the hard-drive-enabled navigation system would automatically update with the latest information about detours and traffic conditions or alert drivers to road hazards, and suggest alternative routes to avoid traffic jams.
IN-CAR ENTERTAINMENT
For in-car entertainment, embedded hard drives would offer passengers fast access to libraries of reading material, movies and video games. Today, cars are equipped with televisions that avoid driver distractions by automatically dimming when the car is in motion.
Plans are also underway to integrate hard drive technology into automobile-based programs that use voice commands to quickly access the Internet or other PC applications. New programs will be able to read your e-mails to you and allow for a hands-free response.
Future cars will be able to record all of the circumstances of a trip. Like an airplane’s “black box,” the hard drive could store information about the car’s speed, breaking and handling. Those investigating an accident would be able to tell if the driver properly signalled when turning, was traveling at the proper speed, and if the driver was keeping sufficient distance from the vehicle in front of him.
The hard drive’s use in cars would also revolutionize automobile maintenance and performance. Connected to a network of multiple sensors throughout the vehicle, the driver would receive information about everything from tire pressure to oil levels. This is very handy to pre-empt drivers to get a tune up, as well as where mechanical problems exist and what needs to be done to repair them. A complete electronic recording of all maintenance and repair work could maintained for the life of the car.
Hard disk drive technology is proving to be the enabling technology that will ultimately change our notion of cars, and even the driving experience itself. It is small wonder, therefore, that research company IDC estimates the market for in-car hard drives to grow from 1.8 million in 2005 to more than 23 million by 2010.
It is clear that the hard drive will continue to evolve, playing an increasingly significant role in helping us enjoy safer, happier and more productive lives.
Captions
Their ability to store and access enormous amounts of information makes hard disk drives the technology of choice for state-of-the-art automotive stereo systems and global positioning systems (GPS).
For in-car entertainment, embedded hard drives will offer passengers fast access to libraries of reading material, movies and video games.
Click here for Illustrations:
Figure 1, Figure 2
