Toshiba plans to boost its hard drive capacities by using Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording rather than Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording. The company could use the technology to produce an ~18 terabyte hard drive:
Toshiba, like Western Digital, is going to use Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) to escape the inability of current PMR tech to go beyond 15-16TB disk drive capacity. [...] Seagate has chosen to [increase capacities] using heat (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording or HAMR). Proponents of the MAMR approach say HAMR stresses the disk surface and read:write heads rendering the disk unreliable in the long-term. Seagate disputes this and has demonstrated long life HAMR read:write heads.
Western Digital has chosen MAMR for its future technology and now we know Toshiba is doing the same.
[...] MAMR uses 20 - 40GHZ frequencies and the [Spin Torque Oscillator (STO)] bombards a bit area with a circular AC microwave field, lowering its coercivity and enabling the bit value to be written (magnetic polarity changed as desired.)
It is reckoned that MAMR could lead to 4Tbit/in2 areal densities, beyond the 700 to 1,000Gbit/in2 used currently, and leading to 40TB drives.
Related: Western Digital to Use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording to Produce 40 TB HDDs by 2025
Seagate to Stay the Course With HAMR HDDs, Plans 20 TB by 2020, ~50 TB Before 2025
Seagate Plans 36 TB HAMR HDDs by 2022, 48 TB by 2024
Seagate Starts to Test 16 TB HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) Hard Drives
Related Stories
Western Digital is planning to use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) instead of Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) to produce hard drives with capacities of up to 40 terabytes by 2025:
WD has selected MAMR (Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording) as its new HDD recording technology, which the company claims can enable up to 40TB HDDs by 2025. WD's rapid transition to MAMR is somewhat surprising, but the technology has been in development for nearly a decade. It certainly stands in contrast to Seagate's plans for using the laser-assisted HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) as the route to higher storage density.
The transition to the new recording process isn't immediate, but WD plans to have initial products shipping by 2019, and it had working demo models this week at its event in San Jose. The improved recording technology is needed to keep HDDs cost-competitive with the surging SSDs, but economics dictate that SSDs will never replace HDDs entirely, especially as the volume of data continues to grow exponentially; WD predicts that HDDs will account for ~90% of data center storage in 2020.
The technology announcement reportedly took the storage industry by surprise and MAMR doesn't have the same issues that have delayed HAMR:
WD pointed out that MAMR requires absolutely no external heating of the media that could lead to reliability issues. The temperature profiles of MAMR HDDs (both platters and drive temperature itself) are expected to be similar to those of the current generation HDDs. It was indicated that the MAMR drives would meet all current data center reliability requirements.
Based on the description of the operation of MAMR, it is a no-brainer that HAMR has no future in its current form. Almost all hard drive industry players have a lot more patents on HAMR compared to MAMR. It remains to be seen if the intellectual property created on the HAMR side is put to use elsewhere.
Will we have 100 TB by 2032?
Also at BBC, PetaPixel, and Engadget. WD Technology Brief.
Previously: AnandTech Interview With Seagate's CTO: New HDD Technologies Coming
Seagate HAMR Hard Drives Coming in a Year and a Half
Glass Substrate Could Enable Hard Drives With 12 Platters
Western Digital recently announced plans to use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) to build its next generation of hard disk drives instead of Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). WD promised that initial drives will ship in 2019, with 40 terabyte drives available by 2025.
In response, Seagate has reiterated its plans to produce HAMR hard disk drives in the near future. The company says that its first HAMR drives will ship around 2018-2019 (40,000 have already been built and are being tested by leading customers), at capacities of 16 TB or more. From there, Seagate expects to develop drives storing around 50 TB "early next decade", and eventually drives with capacities of up to 100 TB by combining HAMR with bit-patterned media and two-dimensional magnetic recording (PDF):
HDD technology has become somewhat boring. Innovation has slowed, but that's largely because we've reached the limits of PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording), which is the key underlying HDD recording technology. Over the last two years, we've seen a few interesting new technologies that let us cram more bits into the same old 3.5" HDD, such as SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording). Unfortunately, the new tech comes with slower performance and often requires radical system changes if you want to unlock the full performance. That isn't worth the small capacity improvement unless you're deploying tens of thousands of HDDs.
[...] WD's MAMR relies largely upon proven technologies, which is a plus, but Seagate claimed that it's already producing the more exotic HAMR drives on the same production lines as its existing PMR-based drives. It also said that it has already built a strong supply chain for the new materials.
Both WD and Seagate have solid arguments for their chosen technologies, but the market will determine the winner. Both technologies will undoubtedly provide similar characteristics to today's HDDs, such as endurance, reliability, performance, and power specifications, so cost will be the true differentiator. As always, cheap and good enough will win. The HDD industry settled on PMR recording in 2005, and all three big vendors continue to use the same underlying technology. The move to two different technologies should make for a more exciting HDD future. Seagate plans to provide an update on its progress in early 2018.
Previously: AnandTech Interview With Seagate's CTO: New HDD Technologies Coming
Seagate HAMR Hard Drives Coming in a Year and a Half
Glass Substrate Could Enable Hard Drives With 12 Platters
Seagate HAMRs out a roadmap for future hard drive recording tech
Seagate has set a course to deliver a 48TB disk drive in 2023 using its HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording) technology, doubling areal density every 30 months, meaning 100TB could be possible by 2025/26.
[...] Seagate will introduce its first HAMR drives in 2020. The chart [here], from an A3 Tech Live event in London, shows Seagate started developing its HAMR tech in 2016 and that a 20TB+ drive will be rolled out in 2020.
The last PMR drive appears in 2019/20 with 16TB capacity. Seagate's current highest-capacity drive is a 14TB Exos 3.5-inch product.
There is a forecast of areal density doubling every 2.5 years, and Seagate shows two other HAMR drive capacity points: 36TB in 2021/22 and 48TB in 2023/24. Capacity goes on increasing beyond 2025, with 100TB looking likely.
The firm makes the point that HAMR drives will be drop-in replacements for current PMR drives. Seagate will actually develop performance-optimised HAMR drives with MACH.2 multi-actuator technology – two read/write heads per platter – and capacity-optimised drives with shingled magnetic recording (SMR). These are shown in a [second chart].
Previously: AnandTech Interview With Seagate's CTO: New HDD Technologies Coming
Seagate HAMR Hard Drives Coming in a Year and a Half
Western Digital to Use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording to Produce 40 TB HDDs by 2025
Seagate to Stay the Course With HAMR HDDs, Plans 20 TB by 2020, ~50 TB Before 2025
Submitted via IRC for takyon
Seagate Starts to Test 16 TB HAMR Hard Drives
Seagate on Monday disclosed that it had begun testing the industry’s first HAMR hard drive intended for evetualy commercial release. With a capacity of 16 TB, the HDD is being used primarily for internal tests to prepare for its high-volume launch and deployment in actual datacenters in the future. Separately, Seagate announced plans to introduce HAMR-based hard drives with a 20 TB capacity in 2020.
Seagate’s 16 TB Exos HDD featuring heat-assisted magnetic recording technology are drop-in compatible with existing servers and datacenters, which essentially means that their power consumption is 12 W or below. The hard drive is helium filled, but Seagate does not disclose the number of platters the HDD uses.
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
Toshiba's HDD Tech Roadmap: A Mix of SMR, MAMR, TDMR, and HAMR
In an interview published this week with Blocks & Files, Toshiba outlined the company will be relying on a mix of hard drive technologies in order to keep increasing hard drive capacities. Along with current-generation two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technologies, the company will also be tapping both microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) as well as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) for future drives. Already gearing up to ship its first 16 TB TDMR drives, Toshiba's short-term development plans call for it to adopt SMR as well as MAMR. Meanwhile in the longer-term, HAMR will be introduced for further capacity increases.
[...] By adopting MAMR for their 2019 – 2020 nearline HDDs Toshiba and Western Digital can continue using HDD media that is similar to platters used today. By contrast, Seagate is set to skip MAMR and use HAMR along with brand new disks instead.
Previously: Toshiba Will Adopt Western Digital's Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording Approach for Hard Drives
"Nobody" Wants SSDs with Over 16 TB of Storage?
Toshiba Unveils World's First FC-MAMR HDD: 18 TB, Helium Filled
Toshiba this week announced the industry's first hard drive featuring flux-control microwave-assisted magnetic recording (FC-MAMR) technology. The new MG09-series HDDs are designed primarily for nearline and enterprise applications, they offer an 18 TB capacity along with an ultra-low idle power consumption.
The Toshiba MG09-series 3.5-inch 18 TB HDD are based on the company's 3rd generation nine-platter helium sealed platform that features 18 heads with a microwave-emitting component which changes magnetic coercivity of the platters before writing data. The HD disks are made by Showa Denko K.K. (SDK), a long-time partner of Toshiba. Each aluminum platter is about 0.635 mm thick, it features an areal density of around 1.5 Tb/inch2 and can store up to 2 TB of data. The MG09 family also includes a 16 TB model which presumably features a lower number of platters (based on the same performance rating).
Previously:
Toshiba Will Adopt Western Digital's Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording Approach for Hard Drives
Toshiba Roadmap Includes Both MAMR and HAMR Hard Drives, as Well as TDMR and Shingles
Western Digital Releases New 18TB, 20TB EAMR Drives
![[here]](https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/11/02/seagate_why_hamr_950.jpg){kind=link}
![[second chart]](https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/11/02/seagate_hamr_roadmap_950.jpg){kind=link}
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday December 10 2018, @10:17PM
MAMR, Mammary based electronics. Seems like a win/win situation. :)
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday December 10 2018, @11:38PM (2 children)
Mid to late 90s, Someone had a 50 Meg, might have been 500 Meg, I've forgotten, hard drive. For $100. This was a helluva deal and I shot right down and bought one. Put in a drawer thinking that, in 6-12 months when my current drive filled up I'd open up the case and install it.
Fast forward 6-12 months. Ended up buying a whole new machine (this might have been for Half Life 3, have to check dates tho). The hard drive had 4x the capacity for half the cost of the one in my drawer. Knowing me, I still have that drive in its shrink wrap in a box somewhere.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday December 10 2018, @11:44PM
See how that S-curve works? Half Life 2 came out just 20 years ago, and Half Life 3 came out yesterday! Ain't my imagination wonderful?!!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:41AM
Tell me about how fast tech advances...
I still remember my excitement of discovering a pair of CalComp model 100 eight inch floppy drives at a swap meet... Then just as I finally got it running on my IMSAI, I was on the PC wagon.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:59AM (1 child)
Some background: Toshiba and WD are pretty close thanks to their SanDisk Joint Venture. I doubt the share much regarding HDD manufacturing, but it probably made the conversation for MAMR adoption easier.
Today there is only three players making spinning disks: Seagate, WD, and Toshiba. I seem to remember Seagate and WD both claim to be the largest player (depending on how you count) with Toshiba making up the remaining 10-20% of the market.
The article does not make clear if Toshiba will develop MAMR independently or license the technology from WD. I would suspect licensing, as WD probably already owns all of the patents required to implement MAMR. The timeline is also beautifully vague, with only 2016 and 2018 labelled. So MAMR is not coming in the next month, but sometime in the future after that.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:02PM
I've had nothing, but bad experiences with Seagate. Also, the only person I know who got a hybrid SSHD (also from Seagate), had it die on them. On the other hand, I've had WD and Toshiba drives and have had 0 failures.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"