Large capacity probe recording using storage robots (StoBots)

Summary form only given. The progress in data-rate and access time of the hard disk drive has not kept pace with the tremendous increase in data density. This has a deteriorating effect on the total performance of desktop computer systems. The underlying cause of this problem is that only a few heads are responsible for all data transfer. It would be better if the number of heads scales proportionally with the capacity. Probe recording systems, which use thousands of heads in parallel, might offer a solution. The disadvantage of the probe array architectures that have been suggested up to now, is that the total storage area, and therefore the capacity, is low. For areas of several tens of cm/sup 2/, the probe array would be difficult to realize and too expensive. In order to reach high capacity, we suggest to break up the array into smaller subarrays of about 10 probes each, and distribute them over a large area (a tile). This requires that the sub-arrays have actuators with which they can move over the medium surface, like miniature data storage robots, or StoBots, with dimensions of a few 100 /spl mu/m.