Following its rivals, Fujitsu Computer Products announced intention to utilize perpendicular recording technology with its hard disk drives. The first product series that uses the new tech will be available in 2007 and will be intended for mobile computers.

Fujitsu reportedly plans to use two platters with 150Gb/in2 (Gb per square inch) density to power its 200GB 2.5” hard disk drives. At present the largest capacity of a 2.5” HDD is 120GB. Currently the company uses platters with 105Gb/in2  density, which means that perpendicular recording technology will allow Fujitsu to increase density of its platters by about 50% in two years time.

Perpendicular recording gets its name from the vertical alignment of data bits on the plane of the disk, which takes less room in contrast to the horizontal orientation of today’s longitudinal recording technology. To be accurately recorded and read, the more closely-packed perpendicular bits also require a closer association between the read/write head and the recording media. Hitachi said earlier this year it had achieved the 230Gb/in2 density by manipulating the head and media so that the distance between them is a mere 10nm.

In 2004, Fujitsu had 16.5% of the global market for 2.5” drives, behind Hitachi with 49.1% and Toshiba with 34.5%, according to market researcher IDC, PCAdvisor web-site notes.

Hitachi GST, Maxtor, Seagate and Toshiba will also use perpendicular recording tech in future.