However, a number of technologies have improved their performance over the years. Those include cache, techniques for modifying Lowest Common Denominator values, and disk synchronization. The mechanics of the traditional hard drive Solid-state drives leap past their mechanical equivalents in performance. IBM called the first hard drive to use that design the Model 3030. Because of the similarity between its model number and the caliber of the famous Winchester rifle, the drive and its successors came to be known as Winchester drives.
Cylinders are themselves divided into areas called sectors.
Operating systems write data to drives according to addresses established by those divisions. The faster a platter rotates, the more data a recording head can read in a given amount of time. Some drives provide multiple heads that hover over different areas of the same platter. Such a design reduces the distance that a head must move to access data but also introduces an added period of delay, called head settling time, in which the additional heads stop shaking. Large file transfers, in particular, often benefit from cache.