Get Perpendicular on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2011–2026.
explainer · dated
A Hitachi promotional cartoon in the style of Schoolhouse Rock explaining perpendicular magnetic recording for hard drives.
Remembered fondly as a fun, memorable animated explanation of how perpendicular disk storage works.
“It's a simple concept to explain, but animation sure makes it fun and lasting.”
5 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
That song is etched into my memory and bring back a flood of great feelings. Daily Motion is giving me a playback error, but here's a copy from youtube: ▶ this video
in “What Is Z-Angle Memory and Why Is Intel Developing It?” · View on HN
maybe not CS concepts, but wanted to re-share Perpendicular disc storage from Hitachi. ▶ this video It's a simple concept to explain, but animation sure makes it fun and lasting.
in “Ask HN: What's your favorite illustration in Computer Science?” · View on HN
That's what I'm wondering though. Nearly all the WD data center drives are marketed as Ultrastar. Is this marketing, or did the HGST entity supplant WD enterprise during "integration" in the last two years? [link] It looks like the only surviving product names are Ultrastar and CinemaStar. Nothing is labeled HGST anymore. Most of the HGST Helium disks were SMR, if I'm not mistaken. As of now, given the two HelioSeal series, one of the two is SMR. Side Note: Hitachi had such a great thing going with their Schoolhouse Rock meets Dino DNA commercial. I wish this would have continued. ▶ this video
in “Western Digital admits 2TB-6TB WD Red NAS drives use shingled magnetic recording” · View on HN
Maybe you forgot this? Hitachi School House Rock video... ▶ this video "Get Perpendicular" Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.
in “Western digital acquires Hitachi Global Storage Tech for $4.3B” · View on HN
> or if we radically change the fabrication process and turn transistors sideways This reminded me so much of this: ▶ this video
in “The Moore's Law blowout sale is ending” · View on HN