OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba received a Promotion of Electrical Science and Engineering Award from the Promotion Foundation for Electrical Science and Engineering for "Development of CoPt-SiO2 granular medium for perpendicular magnetic recording".

This follows on from the September award to Toshiba of the "Innovative Technology & Product Award 2013" by the Magnetic Society of Japan for "Development of CoPt-Oxide/Ru granular magnetic film for perpendicular magnetic recording media". These achievements underline Toshiba's leadership in the development of advanced magnetic materials and manufacturing processes for perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The principle of PMR was proposed in 1977 by Dr. Shunichi Iwasaki, now Professor Emeritus at Tohoku University, who received the Japan Prize in 2010 and the Order of Culture in 2013 for his distinguished services in inventing the technology and related work. Toshiba succeeded in commercializing the world's first 1.8-inch HDD utilizing PMR technology in 2005.

From the initial 1977 proposal on, PMR was long awaited as the technology to break the areal density limit of the then mainstream, longitudinal recording system. The near 30 years devoted to research development and research period was largely spent on identifying a new magnetic material, and developing a suitable production process.

Today, every HDD produced in the world uses PMR. They support state-of-the-art ICT that constantly requires ever larger recording capacity and lower energy consumption.

Toshiba recognizes these two awards show usefulness of technical development and magnify the patient effort of the engineers, and will continue to exert ourselves for research and development of new technologies.