[Neuromancer]

I was reading this the other day and did not see the benefit then, but this article made me think of something else.

Why don't they make a HDD with less moving parts? Instead of having one or two heads on a movable arm. Have a fixed arm with heads along the entire length of it. Less moving parts, and by bracing the arm on the spindle, you will not have problems wit hthe heads hitting the platters.

Now, it would not be simple, I am not sure exactly how HDD tech works. For instance does spindle speed vary on hdds so they can pack the same density of data across the entire platter? Would thios mean needing heads that can read data at different rates across the platter? Or would they just have to design variable density platters? (Or do they already... there is a big drop in STRs as one gets closer to the center of a rotational disk, perhpas storage density is the reason why).

That kind of tech would eliminate the need to develop new mechanical storage for another few years, eliminate more moving parts, but would require more "heads" so costs should stay close to modern architecture.