PMR | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 02 Sep 2015 02:09:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png PMR | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Seagate unveils 2TB 2.5-inch/7mm hard drive with 1TB platters https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-introduces-unique-2tb-2-5-inch7mm-hard-disk-drive/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-introduces-unique-2tb-2-5-inch7mm-hard-disk-drive/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2015 01:38:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=265864 Seagate Technology has announced a unique hard disk drive for mobile computers that can store 2TB of data and is packed with exclusive technologies. The new ultra-slim HDD features shingled magnetic recording platters with extreme areal density as well as all-new mechanics. The new 2TB HDD from Seagate comes in 2.5” form-factor and is only …

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Seagate Technology has announced a unique hard disk drive for mobile computers that can store 2TB of data and is packed with exclusive technologies. The new ultra-slim HDD features shingled magnetic recording platters with extreme areal density as well as all-new mechanics.

The new 2TB HDD from Seagate comes in 2.5” form-factor and is only 7mm thick. The drive is based on two 1TB SMR platters with industry-leading areal density as well as new high-spatial efficiency mechanics, including new head, preamp, channel and other components. The usage of new mechanics allowed Seagate to pack two platters into a 7mm drive and reduce weight of the HDD to 3.17 oz. The drive uses Serial ATA interface, but Seagate does not disclose its spindle speed, cache capacity and so on.

“In an industry first, our engineers have been able to boost areal density to 1TB per platter in a 2.5-inch form factor, which will give OEMs the flexibility to design and build virtually any kind of mobile device they can envision, with plenty of storage to boot,” said Mark Re, Seagate’s chief technology officer. “Combining new mechanical firmware architectures, with state of the art heads, media and electronic design, this technology is a real game changer- providing four times more capacity than a 0.25TB SSD at a substantially lower cost.”

seagate_hdd_mobile

The SMR platters with extreme areal density will allow Seagate to build hard drives with even higher capacity than the drive announced this week. If the company has technologies for 1TB 2.5” platters, it means that it can also produce 2TB 3.5” platters, which will enable 10TB hard drives with 5 platters.

Seagate did not reveal whether 1TB SMR platters are made in-house, or by Showa Denko K.K. Earlier this year SDK introduced 750TB platters for 2.5” HDDs, but promised to release 1TB platters for such drives at a later date.

“The notebook PC continues to be an important productivity tool, especially for content creators who are producing an enormous volume of data,” said John Rydning, IDC’s research vice president for hard disk drives. “Seagate’s new ultra-mobile HDD technology is ground breaking for Seagate and the HDD industry, making it possible for notebook PC users to have generous storage capacity in a thin and light PC.”

Pricing of the new drive is unclear, but it will naturally cost more than competing solutions thanks to unique advantages it offers.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The new HDD from Seagate is clearly unique and will enable thin-and-light laptops with unprecedented storage capabilities. Unfortunately, SMR-based HDDs are not performance champs, which means that such PCs will be rather slow even when compared to laptops with HDDs.

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Seagate unveils world’s first 2.5-inch 4TB HDD with 800GB platters https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-unveils-worlds-first-2-5-inch-4tb-hdd-with-leading-edge-800gb-platters/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-unveils-worlds-first-2-5-inch-4tb-hdd-with-leading-edge-800gb-platters/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2015 22:25:38 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=255052 Seagate Technology on Wednesday introduced Samsung Spinpoint M10P hard disk drive, which features 4TB capacity and 2.5”/15mm form-factor. The drive will initially be used inside the company’s external HDD products, but HDDs based on the same leading-edge platters will address other applications eventually. Seagate, which acquired hard disk drive manufacturing assets from Samsung back in …

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Seagate Technology on Wednesday introduced Samsung Spinpoint M10P hard disk drive, which features 4TB capacity and 2.5”/15mm form-factor. The drive will initially be used inside the company’s external HDD products, but HDDs based on the same leading-edge platters will address other applications eventually.

Seagate, which acquired hard disk drive manufacturing assets from Samsung back in 2011 and continues to use this brand for select products, on Wednesday introduced two new Samsung-branded external hard disk drives that not only set a new bar for compact external storage, but also use 2.5” platters with record capacity of 800GB. In fact, the Samsung M3 and Samsung P3 drives significantly redefine Seagate’s positions in the market.

samsung_m3_portable_seagate
Samsung M3 Portable

Seagate’s Samsung M3 Portable (with enhanced endurance) and P3 Portable (with sleek design) 4TB external hard disk drives are based on the all-new Spinpoint M10P 2.5” hard drive. The new external storage devices feature USB 3.0 interface (with up to 5Gb/s peak bandwidth), they weigh only 373 grams (8.3 ounces) and are only 19.85mm thick (0.78”). The drives require USB power and thus are pretty energy-efficient.

“Previously only attainable in desktop or bulky multi-drive internal designs, we can now achieve a 4TB capacity in a compact drive thanks to the latest Samsung HDD technology,” said Dave Klenske, director of product line management at Samsung HDD.

samsung_spinpoint
Samsung Spinpoint

The Spinpoint M10P is based on five 800GB platters, which presumably use shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology. The drive likely uses Serial ATA-6Gb/s interface, but other specifications, such as spindle speed, cache size and latency are unknown.

“The Spinpoint M10P 4TB hard drive enables this innovation with the highest aerial density, 800GB per disk in the world,” said Doug DeHaan, general manager of Samsung HDD division. “With consumer demand for external storage capacity continuing to grow, the P3 and M3 4TB answer the increasing appetite for storage and are positioned to lead future capacity needs from the mobile market.”

samsung_p3_portable_seagate
Samsung P3 Portable

The biggest intrigue about the new Spinpoint M10P hard disk drives is the manufacturer of platters. For many years Showa Denko K. K., the last remaining independent producer of HDD platters and heads, has been manufacturing platters with the highest areal density in the industry. Earlier this year SDK introduced its eighth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) platters for 2.5” HDDs that can store 750GB of data. Unless the company has quietly unveiled its new media for portable drives with even higher capacity, it means that Seagate made the new 800GB platters in-house.

Production of platters with leading-edge areal density is something that is hard to overestimate. If Seagate can mass product 800GB SMR media for 2.5” HDDs, it can also make 3.5” SMR platters with 1.5TB – 1.6TB capacity. Such media opens doors to enterprise-class six-platter hard drives with 9TB – 9.6TB capacity. Moreover, if Seagate can produce leading-edge platters itself, it will not have to buy them from Showa Denko and can therefore improve its profit margins.

The Samsung 4TB M3 and MP Portable hard drives made by Seagate will be available in late June through authorized distributors.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: 800GB platters for portable hard drives is nothing, but a breakthrough. It is unlikely that Seagate will use SMR platters for all of its drives any time soon because of performance concerns, but a 4TB 2.5” HDD is a remarkable achievement.

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HGST formally introduces its 10TB hard disk drive https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgst-formally-introduces-its-10tb-hard-disk-drive/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgst-formally-introduces-its-10tb-hard-disk-drive/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2015 19:15:10 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=253607 HGST, a maker of hard disk drives that belongs to Western Digital, on Tuesday formally introduced the world’s first hard disk drive with 10TB capacity. The HDD was developed for active archive applications and is not designed to offer leading-edge performance. Moreover, to use it, owners of datacenters will need to optimize their software. The …

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HGST, a maker of hard disk drives that belongs to Western Digital, on Tuesday formally introduced the world’s first hard disk drive with 10TB capacity. The HDD was developed for active archive applications and is not designed to offer leading-edge performance. Moreover, to use it, owners of datacenters will need to optimize their software.

The HGST Ultrastar Archive Ha10 comes in 3.5” form-factor, is based on seven shingled magnetic recording (SMR) platters and is filled with helium. The new drive features Serial ATA-6Gb/s or SAS-6Gb/s interface as well as 7200rpm spindle speed. According to HGST, the Ultrastar Archive Ha10 has sustained read transfer rate of 157MB/s and sustained write transfer rate of 68MB/s. Average seek time of the drive is about 8.5ms. The Ultrastar Archive Ha10 is the third of HGST’s helium-based HDDs launched in less than two years.

“HGST’s helium-filled drives boasts industry-leading storage density, low power consumption and proven reliability with 2.5M hours MTBF,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing of HGST. “By layering SMR on top of helium, we are enabling massively-scalable, TCO-driven storage solutions with the performance and durability necessary for the long term retention of archived data. Making SMR design investments today minimizes incremental efforts for future SMR solutions, and gives our customers a time-to-market advantage for all current and future high capacity HDDs in the market.”

hgst_10tb_hdd

HGST’s 10TB hard disk drives are designed for cloud datacenters that require maximum amount of storage. Since applications based on the new Ultrastar Archive Ha10 maximize storage density per cubic meter, the new hard drives will be popular among companies like Amazon Web Services and similar.

In fact, HGST warns that the Ultrastar Archive Ha10 is not a drop-in replacement for traditional capacity enterprise drives. To truly take advantage of the HDD, custom active archive applications with sequential write workloads are required. Since the drives use SMR platters, owners of datacenters will need to optimize their software for the HDD. Initial rollout of the 10TB hard drive is focused on cloud and OEM storage customers who have the in-house capability to develop the software required. As a result, at first such drives will be available at a request and will not be sold in retail.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Without any doubts, 10TB hard disk drive is a breakthrough. However, to truly take advantage of increased capacities, datacentre owners will have to optimize their software since HDDs based on SMR technology are considerably slower than hard drives featuring PMR platters.

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Seagate readies 2.5-inch HDD with over 2TB capacity https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-readies-2-5-inch-hdd-with-over-2tb-capacity/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-readies-2-5-inch-hdd-with-over-2tb-capacity/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2015 23:07:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=245949 Seagate Technology late last week revealed plans to introduce a 2.5” hard disk drive with over 2TB capacity. The company did not reveal any additional technical details about the product, but said that it would be released in the next couple of quarters. “Our 2TB 2.5-inch [hard disk] drive still leads the industry in areal …

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Seagate Technology late last week revealed plans to introduce a 2.5” hard disk drive with over 2TB capacity. The company did not reveal any additional technical details about the product, but said that it would be released in the next couple of quarters.

“Our 2TB 2.5-inch [hard disk] drive still leads the industry in areal density and will be refreshed in the next two quarters to a higher capacity, maintaining our leadership,” said Dave Mosley, president of operations and technology at Seagate, during the company’s conference call with investors and financial analysts. “We look forward to pushing these areal density improvements into the majority of our products in fiscal year 2016.”

seagate_hdd_mobile

Earlier this year Showa Denko K.K., an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, announced its first eighth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording platters for HDDs. The eighth-gen media has unprecedented areal density and is designed for 2.5” hard drives. Capacity of the new platter is 750GB, which allows to build dual-platter HDDs with 1.5TB capacity as well as triple-platter hard drives with 2.25TB capacity.

Showa Denko also intends to accelerate its development of next generation 2.5” HD media with storage capacity of 1TB. It is unclear when exactly such platters emerge on the market, but Seagate could use them to build dual-platter 2TB HDDs as well as triple-platter 3TB HDDs for notebooks.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be very interesting to see what exactly Seagate plans to launch. 2.25TB capacity does not look like a breakthrough, but 3TB HDD that actually fits into laptops seems to be a very interesting product.

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HGST starts to sample 10TB HDDs, expects helium-filled drives to thrive https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgst-starts-to-sample-10tb-hdds-claims-50-of-enterprise-hdds-will-be-helium-filled-by-2017/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgst-starts-to-sample-10tb-hdds-claims-50-of-enterprise-hdds-will-be-helium-filled-by-2017/#respond Tue, 24 Mar 2015 10:44:57 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=241571 HGST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., on Tuesday said that its Ultrastar HelioSeal hard disk drives are now field-proven and rated for two and a half million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). In addition, the company said that it had begun to sample its 10TB hard drives with select customers and that …

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HGST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., on Tuesday said that its Ultrastar HelioSeal hard disk drives are now field-proven and rated for two and a half million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). In addition, the company said that it had begun to sample its 10TB hard drives with select customers and that 50 per cent of its enterprise-class HDDs will be filled with helium by 2017.

While helium-filled hard disk drives are harder to produce than traditional HDDs, because helium’s density is seven times lower than that of air, it is possible to install more platters inside such drives and also reduce power consumption of motors. This allows to retain 7200rpm spindle speed on high-capacity hard drives. The manufacturer claims that the helium inside the drives also reduces disk vibration and flutter, which further improves reliability. Finally, since Ultrastar HelioSeal are hermetically sealed, air, humidity and other contaminates are kept out of the drive.

“Based on the patented HelioSeal technology, HGST’s Ultrastar Helium-filled drives are the only drives that improve data center TCO on virtually every level—from storage density, power and cooling costs, to reliability, capacity and more. We also believe it is the only way to get to higher densities therefore higher capacities while maintaining reliability. All of these factors contribute to defining the true TCO of the data center,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST.

wd_hgst_ultrastar_helium_10tb

The company said that so far it has sold about one million Ultrastar HelioSeal HDDs, which is not a lot. Nonetheless, the company believes that in the coming years helium-filled hard drives will account for 50 per cent of its enterprise-class HDDs.

HGST is shipping its 6TB Ultrastar He6 and 8TB Ultrastar He8 helium-filled drives commercially today. HGST’s 10TB Helium HDDs with SMR are sampling with select customers.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Without any doubts, helium-filled hard disk drives are great for datacentres, where every additional terabyte matters. However, it does not look like such HDDs will ever be offered for consumers as they are still pretty expensive to make.

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HGST’s 10TB HDD pictured, set to hit the market in Q2 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgsts-10tb-hdd-pictured-set-to-hit-the-market-in-q2-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgsts-10tb-hdd-pictured-set-to-hit-the-market-in-q2-2015/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2015 01:13:33 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=239990 HGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., has demonstrated its highly-anticipated 10TB hard disk drive at the Linux Foundation Vault trade-show in Boston, Massachusetts. The new drive is already in mass production and will be released commercially shortly. ZDNet has managed to picture the prototype of the 10TB SMR HelioSeal hard disk drive, the industry’s …

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HGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., has demonstrated its highly-anticipated 10TB hard disk drive at the Linux Foundation Vault trade-show in Boston, Massachusetts. The new drive is already in mass production and will be released commercially shortly.

ZDNet has managed to picture the prototype of the 10TB SMR HelioSeal hard disk drive, the industry’s first HDD that can store such incredible amount of data. The hard drive features a massive sticker and is clearly not a commercial version of the product, but it proves (assuming that HGST just did not put a sticker on another drive) that 10TB HDDs exist. It is unknown whether HGST demonstrated the hard disk drive in action or not during the trade-show.

wd_hgst_10tb_hdd_helio_seal_zdnet

The HGST 10TB UltraStar HelioSeal hard drive is based on seven 1.43TB SMR [shingled magnetic recording] platters and is filed with helium. Nothing else, including spindle speed, cache size, interfaces, performance figures, etc. is known about the novelty.

The ultra-large capacity HGST HelioSeal HDDs are designed for cool-to-cold storage applications. The main goals of cold data storage applications is to store maximum amount of data per cubic meter of a datacentre while consuming the lowest amount of energy. Typical 42U capacity-optimized storage cluster can hold 360 3.5” hard disk drives. With 10TB drives, capacity of 42U rack will total 3600TB of data.

If HGST releases its 10TB HDDs in the second quarter, then its customers will start deploying such drives sometimes in late Q3 2015. Since the 10TB UltraStar HelioSeal hard drive provides a number of advantages over competing solutions, it is likely that such HDDs will become rather popular among those, who need to store vast amounts of cold data. HGST believes that this year its HelioSeal hard drives will finally be adopted widely.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Looks like HGST is on the finish line with its 10TB HDDs for datacentres. I wonder how long it will take hard drive makers to create 10TB drives for consumers.

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WD, HGST expect helium-filled HDDs to get more popular this year https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/western-digital-hgst-expect-helium-filled-hdds-to-get-more-popular-this-year/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/western-digital-hgst-expect-helium-filled-hdds-to-get-more-popular-this-year/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:06:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=236165 HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital, first announced its helium-filled hard disk drives in 2013 and started their shipments in 2014. Such drives have a number of advantages compared to traditional HDDs, but they still have not gained popularity because both WD and Seagate produce hard drives with comparable capacity that are not …

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HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital, first announced its helium-filled hard disk drives in 2013 and started their shipments in 2014. Such drives have a number of advantages compared to traditional HDDs, but they still have not gained popularity because both WD and Seagate produce hard drives with comparable capacity that are not sealed. However, this year a lot may change.

At present HGST offers Ultrastar He hard drives with 6TB and 8TB capacities for applications that require maximum storage density and relatively high performance. Such HDDs compete with HGST’s Ultrastar 6TB hard drives, WD’s Ae 6.3TB HDDs as well as Seagate’s Enterprise Capacity, Enterprise NAS and Archive hard disk products with 5TB – 8TB capacities. While the Ultrastar He products have some advantages compared to rival products, they are still not radically better than competitors, which is a reason of their relatively low popularity.

In the coming months HGST plans to release 10TB UltraStar HelioSeal hard drive that will offer a massive capacity advantage over all existing solutions. The drive is based on seven 1.43TB SMR [shingled magnetic recording] platters and is filed with helium. While Seagate also plans to introduce its 10TB HDD this year (based on six 1.66TB SMR platters), the company will likely do that only in late 2015, which means that the Ultrastar He 10TB will have a significant time-to-market advantage. The release of the 10TB helium-filled drive as well as the ramp of 8TB product will help the drives to gain market share because so far the adoption of such HDDs has been slow.

wd_hgst_ultrastar_helium_10tb

“Helium, as an individual category, particularly as it relates to 6TB drive, probably did not have a material impact [on our business],” said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer and president of Western Digital, during a recent conference call with investors and financial analysts. “We believe that as we transition to the 8TB platform with the helium product, we will begin to see a bit of a larger impact.”

Mike Cordano, the president of HGST, also believes that the use of helium-filled hard drives will increase this year. In an interview with DigiTimes he predicted “a large increase in the use of helium-filled hard disk drives” in data centers in 2015.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The HGST HelioSeal platform will have to offer a clear and consistent advantage in terms of capacity over competing HDDs from all manufacturers to stay relevant. It remains to be seen how the HelioSeal platform will work with heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and other upcoming HDD technologies. To keep its HelioSeal ahead of competitors, HGST will have to combine it with all the latest recording methods, which is not an easy thing to do.

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Showa Denko to enable 10TB HDDs with eighth-generation PMR media https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/showa-denko-enables-extreme-hdd-capacities-with-eighth-generation-pmr-media/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/showa-denko-enables-extreme-hdd-capacities-with-eighth-generation-pmr-media/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2015 23:59:50 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=234526 Showa Denko K.K., an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, has announced its first eighth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording platters for HDDs. The first eighth-gen media is aimed at hard drives in 2.5” form-factor and has 750GB capacity. Toshiba will use such platters for its latest 3TB 2.5” HDDs. The new-generation media opens doors to …

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Showa Denko K.K., an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, has announced its first eighth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording platters for HDDs. The first eighth-gen media is aimed at hard drives in 2.5” form-factor and has 750GB capacity. Toshiba will use such platters for its latest 3TB 2.5” HDDs. The new-generation media opens doors to 3.5″ HDDs with up to 10TB capacity.

The new 2.5” hard media that SDK plans to start to ship in March is classified as the eighth-generation of PMR media. It has unprecedented areal density and 750GB capacities, which will allow companies like Seagate, Toshiba or even Western Digital to build dual-platter 2.5” HDDs with 1.5TB capacities. The new platters will also enable ultra-thin hard drives with one platter that can store 750GB of data.

The advances in areal density that the eighth-generation PMR media technology provides will also enable 3.5” hard drive platters with up to 1.5TB capacity. Platters that can store 1.5TB of data will enable Seagate to make six-platter HDDs with up to 9TB capacities, whereas WD/HGST will be able to build seven-platter hard drives with up to 10.5TB capacities.

wd_xe_enterprise_hdd_sas_3

It is noteworthy that SDK’s seventh-generation and eighth-generation PMR platters offer capacities comparable to platters based on the shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology. PMR platters enable higher performance than SMR platters.

Showa Denko also plans to accelerate the development of next generation 2.5” HD media with storage capacity of 1TB. The company does not reveal whether the new tech will use PMR, SMR or heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology.

High-capacity HDD media from SDK is primarily used by Seagate and Toshiba, who do not manufacture high-capacity platters in-house, like Western Digital and HGST do.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is interesting to note that Toshiba introduced HDDs featuring the platters well before Showa Denko introduced its new 750GB 2.5” hard drive media and months before the devices hit mass production. Looks like capacity wars on the market of hard disk drives are heating up.

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HGST’s 8TB hard disk drives are now available in retail https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgsts-8tb-hard-disk-drives-are-now-available-in-retail/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/hgsts-8tb-hard-disk-drives-are-now-available-in-retail/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:00:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=221282 HGST began to ship its 8TB helium-filled hard disk drives to partners among makers of servers and storage equipment back in September. By now the new drives with unprecedented capacity have made it to retail, but their prices are so extreme that even computer enthusiasts will hardly buy them. HGST’s Ultrastar He8 8TB 3.5” hard disk drives …

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HGST began to ship its 8TB helium-filled hard disk drives to partners among makers of servers and storage equipment back in September. By now the new drives with unprecedented capacity have made it to retail, but their prices are so extreme that even computer enthusiasts will hardly buy them.

HGST’s Ultrastar He8 8TB 3.5” hard disk drives feature 7200rpm spindle speed, 128MB DRAM buffer and SAS-6Gb/s, SAS-12Gb/s or SATA-6Gb/s interfaces. The drive is based on seven 1.2TB PMR platters and is filed with helium in order to shrink the distance between platters without increasing risks and sacrificing performance. HGST declares 205MB/s maximum sustained transfer rate and 4.16ms typical latency for its top-of-the-range HDDs.

At present the Ultrastar He8 8TB are available in the U.S. at Amazon and Newegg for $933 and $899, respectively. In Japan the drive is available at one retail store in Akihabara district for ¥79800 ($695, €559, £438). In mainland Europe the HDD is available starting from €619.

hgst_wd_helium_hdd

HGST’s helium-filled hard drives are not designed for consumers, which is why their prices are so high. It will take years for such HDDs to become more or less affordable. Moreover, not a lot of consumers actually need HDDs with extreme capacities since it is not a problem to install multiple drives into a desktop system or use a low-cost NAS device.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The fact that HGST already ships its Ultrastar He8 to retailers means that it can meet demand from its primary customers. This is a good sign as it means that there are no problems to produce helium-filled HDDs in volumes.

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Showa Denko begins to produce 1.3TB platters for high-end HDDs https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/showa-denko-begins-to-produce-1-3tb-platters-for-high-capacity-hdds/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/showa-denko-begins-to-produce-1-3tb-platters-for-high-capacity-hdds/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2014 21:15:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=215419 Showa Denko (SDK), an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, has begun to manufacture its seventh-generation 1.10TB – 1.30TB platters for high-capacity hard drives. The move will allow Seagate Technology, as well as other makers of HDDs, to introduce storage devices with up to 9TB capacity. Showa Denko’s seventh-generation PMR [perpendicular magnetic recording] …

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Showa Denko (SDK), an independent producer of platters for hard disk drives, has begun to manufacture its seventh-generation 1.10TB – 1.30TB platters for high-capacity hard drives. The move will allow Seagate Technology, as well as other makers of HDDs, to introduce storage devices with up to 9TB capacity.

Showa Denko’s seventh-generation PMR [perpendicular magnetic recording] platters for 3.5” hard disk drives with 1.10TB – 1.30TB capacity will be especially useful for Seagate and Toshiba Corp. since the companies do not manufacture high-capacity platters in-house and cannot offer HDDs of very high capacities, unlike Western Digital and HGST. SDK’s seventh-generation PMR technology will also enable 670GB platters for 2.5” hard disk drives.

Although both Seagate Technology and Western Digital produce their own platters for hard disk drives, only Western Digital manufactures high-capacity platters. Seagate uses its own platters for mainstream hard drives, whereas all of its high-end/high-capacity offerings are based on Showa Denko’s hard drive media.

seagate_nas_hdd_3

Platters of 1.1TB – 1.3TB capacities will enable Seagate to make six-platter HDDs with up to 7.8TB capacities, whereas WD/HGST will be able to build seven-platter hard drives with up to 9.1TB capacities.

It is noteworthy that SDK’s seventh-generation 3.5” PMR platters offer capacities comparable to platters based on the shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology. PMR platters enable higher performance than SMR platters.

SDK is the world’s largest independent HD media supplier, it has about one quarter share of the global market.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Seagate, Toshiba and WD/HGST are expected to introduce their new high-capacity HDDs based on SDK’s new platters in the coming months.

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Seagate reveals world’s first 8TB hard disk drives https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-reveals-worlds-first-8tb-hard-disk-drives/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-reveals-worlds-first-8tb-hard-disk-drives/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:21:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=209005 Seagate Technology on Tuesday unveiled the world’s first hard disk drives with 8TB capacity. The HDDs are designed for scale-out data infrastructures that require maximum capacities at minimal footprints. Seagate did not reveal a lot of technical details about its 8TB hard disk drives, but it said that the HDDs come in 3.5” form-factor, use …

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Seagate Technology on Tuesday unveiled the world’s first hard disk drives with 8TB capacity. The HDDs are designed for scale-out data infrastructures that require maximum capacities at minimal footprints.

Seagate did not reveal a lot of technical details about its 8TB hard disk drives, but it said that the HDDs come in 3.5” form-factor, use the Serial ATA-6Gb/s interface and feature enterprise-class reliability as well as multi-drive RV tolerance for consistent enterprise-class performance in high density environments. Super-sized capacity of 8TB allows to store maximum amount of data per rack, which therefore improves storage densities and maximizes efficiencies of data-centers.

The hard drive maker did not unveil how many platters do the 8TB HDDs use and what type of magnetic recording technology they utilize. Earlier this year it was believed that 8TB hard disk drives feature platters based on shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology, but Seagate neither confirmed nor denied the information. The SMR platters are projected to offer lower performance compared to perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology, but Seagate also did not reveal any performance figures.

seagate_hdd_barracuda

“As our world becomes more mobile, the number of devices we use to create and consume data is driving an explosive growth in unstructured data. This places increased pressure on cloud builders to look for innovative ways to build cost-effective, high capacity storage for both private and cloud-based data centers,” said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. “Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the world’s first 8TB HDD, a ground-breaking new solution for meeting the increased capacities needed to support the demand for high capacity storage in a world bursting with digital creation, consumption and long-term storage.”

Seagate said that it is shipping the 8TB drives to select customers now with wide scale availability next quarter.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be extremely interesting to learn more about technologies behind Seagate’s 8TB HDD as well as its performance. If Seagate managed to bring performance of SMR-based drives closer to that of PMR-powered drives, it could use the new recording technology for consumer hard drives as well, which means an increase of their capacities.

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Seagate ships 8TB ‘customer development’ hard drives https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-ships-8tb-customer-development-hard-drives/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/seagate-ships-8tb-customer-development-hard-drives/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:22:27 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=203624 Seagate Technology on Thursday said that it had shipped the first samples of hard disk drives (HDDs) with 8TB capacity to its customers. The company did not reveal any peculiarities regarding the product or the name of its clients. “We have also delivered 8TB customer development units to major customers and cloud service providers and …

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Seagate Technology on Thursday said that it had shipped the first samples of hard disk drives (HDDs) with 8TB capacity to its customers. The company did not reveal any peculiarities regarding the product or the name of its clients.

“We have also delivered 8TB customer development units to major customers and cloud service providers and the initial customer feedback has been very positive,” said Steve Luczo, chairman and chief executive officer of Seagate, during a conference call with financial analysts and investors.

seagate_hdd_barracuda_black

Seagate did not disclose any details regarding the drive, but there are not a lot of ways to build an HDD of such huge capacity nowadays:

  • Increase the amount of platters per drive. Seagate could follow its rival HGST with sealed hard disk drives. It is possible to fill a drive with a gas that is less dense than the air (e.g., Helium, like in the case of HGST’s Ultrastar He6) and then squeeze seven (or even eight Seagate it manages to develop all-new magnetic recording heads) current-generation enterprise-class 3.5” platters of enhanced capacity (1TB – 1.1TB). Such approach greatly works for server-class drives, but it is clearly too expensive for consumer-oriented HDDs.
  • Increase areal density of platters. Seagate could install six enterprise-class platters featuring shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology into a non-sealed drive. SMR helps to increase areal density of HDD platters by 25 per cent compared to current-gen platters featuring perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. While SMR is not yet widely used even for consumer hard drives, it is possible that the technology progresses so successfully that Seagate already has samples of enterprise-class SMR platters. Hard drives with five or six platters are usually designed for servers.
  • Significantly increase areal density of platters. Seagate could ship prototypes of drives based on platters that feature HAMR [heat-assisted magnetic recording] technology. Back in 2012 TDK demonstrated 2TB HAMR platters for 3.5” HDDs, so Seagate could use them to test-drive HAMR hard drives with its PC and server customers.

It is unknown which method Seagate chose for its 8TB hard disk drive.

Keeping in mind that Seagate talks about 8TB “customer development units”, the actual commercial drives of such capacity are probably several quarters, if not years, away from mass production and adoption.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see what exactly Seagate shipped to its customers. All three options are interesting, but if the company is finally on-track to commercially produce HAMR-based HDDs in the foreseeable future, then this is a sensation.

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Seagate vows to ship 6TB hard drives next quarter https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/seagate-vows-to-ship-6tb-hard-drives-next-quarter/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/seagate-vows-to-ship-6tb-hard-drives-next-quarter/#comments Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:17:52 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=174833 Seagate Technology on Monday announced that it would start shipping its first hard disk drives (HDDs) with 6TB capacity early next quarter of its fiscal year. The drives will be aimed at the enterprise market segment and will compete against Western Digital’s HDDs of the same capacity. The world’s second largest maker of hard drives …

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Seagate Technology on Monday announced that it would start shipping its first hard disk drives (HDDs) with 6TB capacity early next quarter of its fiscal year. The drives will be aimed at the enterprise market segment and will compete against Western Digital’s HDDs of the same capacity.

The world’s second largest maker of hard drives did not reveal many details about the new drive, but said that it would be a six-platter 6TB drive, which indicates that the company uses proven current-generation 1TB platters, not all-new SMR [shingled magnetic recording] disks. The company’s ongoing quarter ends in late March, 2014, hence, the 6TB product will be released sometimes in early April.

“We are continuing to expand our offering of high capacity drives with our six terabyte drive shipping early next quarter,” said Steve Luczo, chairman and chief executive officer of Seagate, during a conference call with financial analysts.

seagate_video_hdd

Western Digital, the arch-rival of Seagate, is currently shipping its 6TB HDDs to select customers. In a bid to make those hard drives, WD had to utilize proprietary technology and replace air with helium inside the drives to fit in seven platters.

It is unclear whether Seagate’s 6TB HDDs with six platters are also sealed with helium inside, or Seagate uses a more traditional approach that does not include helium and which is more cost-efficient. Since the density of helium is one-seventh that of air, this means dramatically less drag force acting on the spinning disk stack inside hard disk drives. As a result, mechanical power of the motors can be significantly reduced.

KitGuru Says: While at present Seagate uses a six-platter design to offer leading-edge capacity, in the future the company can further boost capacity (to 7TB or even 7.5TB) by using shingled magnetic recording platters with up to 25% higher capacity compared to current platters.

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