At the CEATEC show in Japan today, TDK announced it has achieved a new milestone in surface recording density for hard disk drives. Using its prototype TMR head, the company was able to reach a surface recording density of 803 gigabits per square inch, shattering Toshiba's previous 378 gigabits per square inch record.

In terms of a single 1.8-inch double-sided disk, this amounts to about 260GB capacities. The bump was made possible by combining the TMR head with recent perpendicular magnetic recording technology, and TDK researchers believe it's still possible to reach 1 terabit per square inch. However, the company did not mention when it plans to use the technology to build high-capacity drives for notebooks and other portable electronic devices.