Patent ID: 6309802
Filing Date: 2001-10-30
Classification: B82Y,G11B

Abstract:
A method for handling information, comprising the steps of:etching an identically reproducible and predetermined designed topography according to a pattern into a planar magnetizable material layer disposed on a planar substrate, the pattern defining a topography consisting essentially of concentric annular rows of equally spaced protrusions separated by concentric annular columns, to form a disk having a non-planar surface defined by discrete, individually magnetizable features on the substrate, the features following each other and being equally spaced apart such that each of the features stores only a single machine-readable bit of information and such that a group of successive aligned features represents a set of ordered data, each of the features being unconnected to any other one of the features by magnetizable material in a direction of reading and writing of the features and there being no magnetizable material present between successive features, each of the features having a single continuous border, each of the single borders being constructed such that each of the single borders bounds only one of the features; andstoring information on the disk by selectively changing a magnetic state of individual ones of the features.