New Toshiba HDDs store nearly 30 terabytes!

 

Toshiba HDDs

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba) has effectively achieved storage capacities of over 30TB through the employment of two next-generation large capacity recording technologies for hard disc drives (HDDs) (HAMR and MAMR). The demonstration drives mark a significant advancement towards the creation of commercial products based on each of these recently well-liked recording formats.


HAMR improves magnetic recording capacities by locally heating the disc with near-field light, making it one of the two techniques advancing next-generation high-capacity data recording. Toshiba reached 32TB on ten CDs by effectively using Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. Toshiba plans to start shipping test sample HDDs with HAMR technology in 2025.


These incredible achievements were made possible by years of close collaboration with Toshiba HDD head manufacturer TDK Corporation and HDD media producer Resonac Corporation. Toshiba and its collaborating partners are committed to advancing the development of both HAMR and MAMR technologies in order to manufacture higher capacity HDDs to meet the growing storage requirements of cloud computing and datacenters.

HAMR and MAMR Engineering

Conventional hard disc drives (HDDs) store data on large platters that are magnetised. It will get more difficult to fit more data onto these platters as technology advances. Both HAMR and MAMR apply in this case.

Magnetic Recording With Heat Assistance (HAMR)

Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) involves briefly heating the recording area on the platter with a focused laser beam. This targeted heating enables the recording head to write data with a higher data density and smaller magnetic bits by using a decreased magnetic field. While HAMR offers significant capacity increases, one of the technology's more difficult aspects is integrating the laser heating system into the HDD shell.

Magnetic Recording With Microwave Assistance (MAMR)

A tiny antenna built inside the recording head uses the Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) technology to emit microwave radiation during the writing process. Compared to conventional methods, which facilitate bit magnetization more easily, microwaves provide denser data storage. In terms of methodology, MAMR is simpler than HAMR. By 2021, Toshiba had already created a significant number of first-generation MAMR drives.

A Summary of What's Ahead

Toshiba presented two demonstration drives: one that utilised HAMR technology and the other that used MAMR with extra improvements.

HAMR Drive

This prototype worked well, with capacities exceeding 30TB. Although specific details have not been disclosed, it is purported that Toshiba is packing more platters into the disc container than conventional HDDs. In 2025, Toshiba intends to begin shipping HAMR HDD test samples.

MAMR Drive with Improvements

With their upgraded MAMR drive, Toshiba has reached 31TB. This achievement combines advanced signal processing techniques, MAMR technologies, and shingled magnetic recording (SMR). Very little data track overlap is made feasible by SMR, allowing for higher area density on the platters. Occasionally, SMR drives may have somewhat slower write speeds than regular HDDs.

Toshiba's collaboration with media producer Resonac Corporation and head maker TDK Corporation enabled the attainment of these objectives. It was crucial that they used their knowledge in materials science and engineering to create the components needed to build these next-generation Toshiba hard disc drives.

Benefits of Toshiba HDD

The release of these high-capacity Toshiba HDDs presents exciting opportunities:

Ideal Data Centre Effectiveness

Data centres with far larger data storage capacities per disc can reduce their energy consumption and physical footprint. This leads to lower costs and a more environmentally friendly way of storing data.

Supercharged cloud storage

These large-capacity drives enable cloud storage providers to offer more scalable and reasonably priced storage solutions to their customers.

Complete Archive Administration

Businesses and organisations that are having trouble keeping up with their ever-growing data archives will benefit from being able to store massive datasets on a single disc.

Potential Issues with Toshiba HDD

However, there are still some challenges:

Expense and intricacy

Compared to conventional Toshiba HDDs, the more complex engineering required for both HAMR and MAMR technologies could lead to higher production costs.

Take Writing Speed Into Account

There can be slight write speed limitations as a result of the MAMR drive's use of SMR. It will be crucial to determine the ideal speed to capacity ratio for certain applications.

Managing Heat

To employ HAMR technology, the laser's heat output needs to be regulated. Reliable drive performance will require efficient heat management technologies.

A New Era in Data Storage Is Here

Toshiba HDD technology. Ultra-high capacity devices enabled by HAMR and MAMR make data storage appear brighter. These upgrades will increase data centre sustainability and efficiency while meeting the growing demand for data storage. It is reasonable to anticipate a radical change in the way Toshiba stores and arranges its ever expanding digital environment as these technologies develop and production costs come down.


News Source : Toshiba HDD

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