Computer hard disks

The performance of computer hard disks is reliant upon a complex structure of layered materials, including platinum and ruthenium. Advances in consumer electronics and the increased need for data storage have seen hard disk drives expand their number of applications outside computing and find use in digital TV recorders and home data centres. The adoption of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology saw an increase in the ruthenium content, to increase the data storage capacity per unit area. This is in keeping with the predictions of Moore's Law, which portends the doubling of data storage density every 18 months.