>>>   I'm wondering if 15 years from now we will be using files of that 
>>> size.
>> 2^40 = 1 TB (we are here already)
> 
> I don't think in one *file*.  One file system, perhaps.

I was thinking in terms of available storage capacity. You can buy 
multi-TB drives now for half-sane prices.

>> 2^50 = 1 PB (never yet heard of anybody except huge corporations 
>> reaching this)
> 
> Amazon has special rates if you're storing more than 5 PB, so it seems 
> someone is.

Sure. Large comporations have reached here. Hell, if you put all the 
servers in my company together, it might total almost 1 TB. What I'm 
saying is that individual users typically don't store this kind of 
volume. (Yet.)

>> I wonder how much data you can physically store in a given volume 
>> using purely magnetic technologies?
> 
> Depends how you define "volume".  Think of the Google File System, 
> spread over lots and lots of disks.

I was more wondering if magnetic spinning disks are soon going to lose 
the ability to increase any further in capacity, much like the way 
processors can't go faster any more.

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