These don't sound like insurmountable issues. > The "heat assisted" just means they're using a laser to heat up a piece of gold, and sometimes this means the g

These don't sound like insurmountable issues. > The "heat assisted" just means they're using a laser to heat up a piece of gold, and sometimes this means the gold kinda drips around, and the head can be ruined. It sounds like this tech is related to MO tech, which has been used for decades without issues (see: minidisc). The laser is said to heat the spot on the platter to a bit over 400C, while the melting point of gold is over 1000C, so that doesn't jive. Did you meant something else? > Lastly, they use SMR to get this density. Why do they have to? SMR is just a way of fitting more data on a disc by overlapping tracks. I don't know why it is necessary to use this method on this technology.