18 TB HDDs: Toshiba Collaborates with Showa Denko for MAMR HDDs
Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) announced on Thursday that it had completed the development of its microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) platters for next-gen hard drives. The company is set to ship platters to Toshiba, which plans to start sampling of its new 18 TB nearline HDDs later this year. In addition to MAMR media, Showa also plans to release disks based on the heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology in the future.
The new 3.5-inch platters from SDK feature a 2 TB capacity and a new magnetic recording layer whose coercivity can be lowered using microwaves (see our brief description of the MAMR technology). SDK is not specifying which magnetic alloy or substrate it's using for its 2 TB media, but according to Western Digital, both should be very similar to those used for today's platters based on the perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Which for Toshiba and its consumers means predictable pricing and reliability.
SDK says that Toshiba is set to use nine 2 TB platters for its 18 TB MAMR-based nearline HDDs, which will begin sampling later this year (and which will probably be commercially available in 2020).
Previously: Toshiba Will Adopt Western Digital's Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording Approach for Hard Drives
Related: Western Digital to Use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording to Produce 40 TB HDDs by 2025
Toshiba Announces the First 16 TB Hard Drive
(Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:45PM
That depends on the workload. For standard /nerdy home user stuff it is worth it. Booting, shutting down, installing updates and installing VMs are all noticeably faster with a 2GBs NVMe than one that runs at 1GBs. Those speeds are 4x and 2x the fastest SATA drive. It does cost more but you will know where your money went.