The rapid and accelerating advancement in the science and technology in information storage in the past decade has had a huge impact on the daily life of all of us in the modern society.

In the 80’s, the magnetic recording industry saw a steady rate of increase of 30% per year in the data storage areal density. Since the emergence of the magnetoresistance (MR) head technology in 1992, this rate doubles achieving a 60% per year increase.

In the past two years, the rate of increase accelerates to 100% per year. To cope with such a fast pace in the advancement of information storage technology, the ASIST series has been organized to provide a forum for presenting and discussing both fundamental and technological issues on information storage technology for researchers and manufacturers in Asia region.

The scope of this symposium includes but is not confined to the following topics: magnetic recording technologies, thin film or particulate media for longitudinal or perpendicular recording, sensor materials, tribology and overcoat materials, magnetoelectronic devices, magneto-optical materials and devices, other novel information storage materials and devices.