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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
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cosurgi on Sunday February 21 2021, @09:29PM (6 children)
There was a huge backslash on HAMR and SMR drives, because they are extremely slow and cannot work properly in raid arrays. When the buffer is filled then the write time becomes so slow that the raid drivers considers the drive dead. That's because the overlapping tracks have to be read first, then modified and written back. Now MAMR does exactly the same thing, but with a lower power consumption.
Who is ever going to buy that?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 21 2021, @09:43PM
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 21 2021, @09:53PM (3 children)
I haven't heard of any HAMR backlash. Got a link?
Overlapping tracks is shingled magnetic recording. It is not necessarily combined with HAMR or MAMR. HAMR/MAMR can reach higher capacities without resorting to SMR, or SMR can be added on top for that extra 15-25%.
Drives that sacrifice speed for extra capacity will be bought, but probably by the likes of Google and Amazon.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 22 2021, @03:33AM
SMR drives work well as backup drives and in DVR setups, but they should never be used for your OS or your home drive, let alone in a RAID. The backlash against them was due to crooked hard drive manufacturers selling SMR drives as CMR (and charging CMR prices).
(Score: 4, Informative) by cosurgi on Monday February 22 2021, @01:45PM
Small correction: they sold these slow drives without mentioning in specs that they are slow. Hence the class action lawsuit:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-class-action-lawsuit-smr-hard-drive-us-canada [tomshardware.com]
https://www.techradar.com/news/western-digital-faces-class-action-suits-over-smr-hard-drives [techradar.com]
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/06/lawsuit-vs-western-digital-wants-to-end-any-use-of-smr-in-nas-drives/ [arstechnica.com]
https://www.hattislaw.com/cases/investigations/western-digital-lawsuit-for-shipping-slower-smr-hard-drives-including-wd-red-nas/ [hattislaw.com]
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(Score: 2) by cosurgi on Monday February 22 2021, @01:47PM
> It is not necessarily combined with HAMR or MAMR
ah. So I have mixed SMR with these two. Sorry about that. Still the distrust remains in me.
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 22 2021, @02:34AM
SMR drives can work in RAID arrays. In fact, we have a number spinning away right now without problem. The only real issue is that you have is that you have to be very careful when you mix them with CMR drives without adjusting the ERC. Even without a proper setup, not mixing the two or watching your random small (compared to your block size) writes and you are just fine. There are a number of other things you can do to tune or architect things to where you'll never notice the difference between your CMR and SMR arrays at a practical level. Other than the increased amount of storage, that is. And you if you want to absolutely squeeze everything out of it you are probably doing that to your array, whether SSD, CMR, or SMR, anyway.