Within the latest months all three arduous drive producers — Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital — and a few of their companions have outlined plans to ship 30TB HDDs already in 2023 ~ 2024 timeframe. Apparently, all of those corporations plan to make use of totally different applied sciences to get to this milestone.
Demand for prime capability nearline arduous drives has been rising for years and isn’t going to cease, as extra information is generated each day. However nearline HDD customers not solely need their drives in massive portions, however they need a fast improve in capability as nicely, in a bid to maintain the variety of drives (and due to this fact the variety of servers and energy consumption of datacenters) in examine. However capability will increase have been slowing down within the latest years, primarily due to gradual roll out of energy-assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) applied sciences.
Seagate: Going Boldly with HAMR
Seagate has all the time envisioned that its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) expertise could be the important thing enabler of radical areal density enhancements after applied sciences like perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR), and shingled magnetic recording run out of steam.
Certainly, Showa Denko Ok. Ok. (SDK), the world’s largest unbiased arduous drive platter producer, believes that HAMR would obtain areal recording densities of 5-6 Tb/in2 sooner or later. This may allow 3.5-inch arduous drives with eight or 9 platters to retailer 70 TB – 80 TB of information. Seagate’s rivals Toshiba and Western Digital agree that HAMR will likely be a expertise of alternative within the longer-term future, however for now and the subsequent few years to return, energy-assisted PMR (ePMR) and microwave-assisted magnetic recoding (MAMR) applied sciences are anticipated to be simply positive.
However HAMR is difficult. A HAMR-based drive requires an all-new proper head with a laser to warmth the media earlier than recording information, so as to quickly change its magnetic coercivity. As nicely, TDMR learn heads are wanted to mitigate doable magnetic inter-track interference (ITI) results.
In the meantime, HAMR requires all-new platters that may deal with a 450°C or larger native warmth (made utilizing a laser with an ~810 nm wavelength and a ~20 mW energy) all with out deforming over time. These platters use glass substrates and excessive anisotropy skinny movie magnetic layer made from an Fe-Pt alloy and that includes a brand new construction to make sure reliability. In contrast, transition to numerous sorts of MAMR is a much less radical one.
Seagate began to ship its 1st Era HAMR-based HDDs in 2019 ~ 2020, when it launched the drives to pick clients and inside its Lyve storage techniques. These drives provided capacities as much as 20TB – class-leading on the time – however for some cause Seagate determined to not make these HAMR merchandise out there to a wider viewers.
As an alternative, the corporate is delivery 20TB drives that includes standard (non-shingled) magnetic recording (CMR) and 22TB SKUs that includes SMR. And over the subsequent a number of months, 22TB HDDs enabled by a mix of many platters, head innovation, TDMR, and different novelties are additionally deliberate for this yr.
Seagate can also be growing its 2nd Era HAMR arduous drives, which is able to allow capacities of over 30TB. However the firm just isn’t disclosing when it expects these HDDs to grow to be out there. All we all know for positive is that final yr Seagate inked a take care of SDK to safe a second supply of HAMR platters; so we’d count on the corporate to lastly make HAMR-based merchandise extra broadly out there before later. In truth, Seagate’s public roadmap signifies a 30 TB HDD in calendar 2023.
“Seagate’s management in mass capability expertise and powerful product portfolio makes us ideally positioned to seize these alternatives from the 20 TB+ drives we’re delivery as we speak to the 30 TB+ HAMR merchandise below improvement,” mentioned David Mosley, CEO of Seagate, again in April.
Toshiba: Betting on MAMR
Toshiba adopted flux-control microwave-assisted magnetic recording (FC-MAMR) expertise in 2021 for its 18TB HDD and introduced plans to make use of microwave assisted switching MAMR (MAS-MAMR) expertise for its ~26TB drive due in fiscal 2022 (which ends on March 31, 2023). Finally, the corporate intends to get to 30TB HDDs between FY2023 (April 1, 2023 — April 1, 2024) with a MAS-MAMR drive that makes use of 11 platters.
Specifically for Toshiba, Showa Denko has developed particular platters optimized for FC-MAMR and MAS-MAMR applied sciences, whereas TDK designed applicable write heads for the corporate. All-in-all, Toshiba has all the things it must maintain its HDD evolving for the approaching years.
Within the longer-term future, typically in FY2024 (April 1, 2024 — April 1, 2025), Toshiba is taking a look at adopting HAMR, however for 2 or three years the corporate goes to stay to numerous sorts of MAMR – a minimum of in accordance with the roadmap that the corporate offered in February, 2022.
Western Digital: ePMR, EAMR, HAMR
Western Digital has maybe essentially the most convoluted HDD roadmaps of all three producers. The corporate demonstrated benefits of MAMR again in 2017 after which promised that the primary drives that includes the expertise will likely be out there in 2019. Transition to MAMR is significantly simpler than transition to HAMR, as whereas it requires new write and browse heads, it doesn’t require solely new media. However the areal density benefits that MAMR brings are significantly decrease than in comparison with these of HAMR. Nonetheless, a comparatively easy transition is among the many primary the explanation why each Toshiba and Western Digital determined to undertake the expertise.
However whereas growing MAMR, Western Digital found ‘quite a lot of vitality assisted strategies’ to quickly decrease magnetic coercivity of the recording media with out utilizing a spin-torque oscillator, an important and comparatively complicated expertise required for MAMR. The corporate collectively calls these strategies EAMR.
In consequence, in September 2019 the corporate launched its Ultrastar DC HC500-series 18TB HDDs, which used WD’s previously-unannounced energy-assisted PMR (ePMR) expertise. ePMR permits areal recording densities to be elevated to over 1.1 Tb/inch2, which can also be thought-about to be the utmost density attainable for normal PMR. For chilly storage purposes, the corporate launched its Ultrastar DC HC600-series 20TB drives that mixed energy-assisted recording with shingled recording, including one other ~10% to capability.
To attain a 20 TB capability with 9 CMR platters (Seagate’s 20TB drive makes use of 10 platters), Western Digital needed to introduce its OptiNAND expertise. After which to get to 22TB with CMR, it added one other platter to the package deal anyhow, probably requiring a serious rework of internals in addition to utilization of latest (thinner) platters. Throughout its Investor Day, Western Digital emphasised that its 22TB and 26TB HDDs proceed to make use of aluminum (AlMg) platters, although the corporate has declined to remark in regards to the magnetic movies used.
In the meantime, in a bid to supply a fairly unique 26TB HDD to its exascale clients, Western Digital can also be adopting the so-called UltraSMR set of applied sciences, which promise so as to add round 20% extra capability to CMR platters (and on this case to the 22TB HDD). To make UltraSMR doable, Western Digital not solely needed to improve the quantity variety of shingled bands and cut back the variety of CMR bands (standard, perpendicular-style magnetic recording bands), however make use of all of its modern HDD applied sciences. This consists of triple stage actuators with two-dimensional (TDMR) learn heads, ePMR write heads, OptiNAND expertise, and a proprietary error correcting code (ECC) expertise with massive block encoding to make sure that elevated adjoining tracks interference (ATI) doesn’t hurt information integrity. That subtle ECC functionality, in flip, might very nicely show essential for each SMR and CMR arduous drives over the approaching years.
Western Digital’s upcoming 22 TB CMR HDD continues to depend on ePMR expertise, whereas its successors will use the so-called ePMR 2 expertise, which permits for areal densities over 1.3 Tb/inch2 (or roughly 18% over ePMR). We should not have additional technical particulars on ePMR 2 (past that it naturally falls into the EAMR class), however Western Digital says that it’ll ultimately allow 30TB+ CMR HDDs.
With its ePMR 2 expertise, Western Digital can theoretically improve the capability of its present 2 TB platters by round 18%, bringing them to 2.36 TB. This may get WD to 24 ~ 25 TB per drive subsequent yr, relying on the precise areal density it will possibly obtain and the variety of platters it’s prepared to put in. With UltraSMR on prime, WD would be capable to add one other 20% capability and formally launch a 30TB UltraSMR HDD doubtlessly as quickly as subsequent yr. At this level the solely actual query is when these drives are set to ship in quantity, holding in thoughts that Western Digital’s clients might want to totally qualify them.
How briskly ePMR 2 will allow CMR drives to achieve 30 TB, then again, is one thing that can rely upon the tempo of ePMR 2’s evolution. However we’ve each cause to imagine that with ePMR 2 and UltraSMR Western Digital will be capable to conquer the 30 TB milestone typically subsequent yr.
Showa Denko: 30 TB HDDs Due in 2023
In the meantime, Showa Denko can also be assured that 30 TB arduous drives will likely be launched subsequent yr. Again in Might Showa Denko formally launched its 2.60 TB platters, which will likely be utilized in 26 TB HDDs set to be launched this yr. And the corporate has mentioned that its next-generation media will allow 30 TB+ nearline drives for subsequent yr.
“We’ll speed up improvement of latest [hard drive] media additional, and goal to comprehend near-line HDD having storage capability of greater than 30 TB by the tip of 2023,” a assertion by Showa Denko reads.
Showa Denko’s newest technological achievement is its 2.6 TB platters for 3.5-inch arduous drives. These platters use an ultra-thin AlMg substrate together with SDK’s proprietary magnetic layer that includes ‘positive crystals of magnetic substance’ that enable for very excessive areal recording densities. Which at this cut-off date is a big achievement, as producing an ultra-thin aluminum substrate that’s extraordinarily flat (which is essential for prime anisotropy magnetic layers), inflexible, and doesn’t deform when heated just isn’t a simple process. On the similar time, EAMR expertise is required to put in writing to those platters, and to realize their desired 2.6 TB platter capability, SMR is required as nicely. 10 of those platters, in flip, will likely be what’s used to construct the primary SMR 26 TB HDDs.
On prime of the brand new magnetic layer and the AlMg substrate, the brand new platters additionally characteristic one other SDK’s innovation — a expertise that improves rewrite-cycle endurance on the floor of HD media, one thing that’s essential to be used with EAMR strategies.
Showa Denko just isn’t disclosing which of its clients plan to make use of its 2.6 TB platters, however we all know that SDK provides its media to all three HDD makers. The one firm, in flip, that has introduced a 10-platter 26 TB arduous drive to this point is Western Digital. Moreover, Western Digital can also be the one firm to name its recording expertise with a fairly common time period EAMR, whereas its rivals use phrases HAMR (Seagate) and FC/MAS-MAMR (Toshiba).
This provides us a number of causes to imagine that SDK’s newest platters are utilized by Western Digital for its new 26TB Ultrastar DC HC670 UltraSMR HDDs, although at this level it isn’t confirmed. Moreover, since each Toshiba and Seagate have been enjoying with SMR, it’s doable that these two corporations will give you their very own UltraSMR-like expertise to make use of in their very own 26TB HDDs – particularly as the 2 corporations have already got 10-platter HDD platforms.
As for the 30 TB HDDs envisioned by SDK for late 2023, the large query is what strategies HDD producers will flip to additional enlarge drive capability. As all the time, the 2 choices boil right down to rising the variety of platters, and/or boosting per-platter capability. Each strategies have been used and will likely be used going ahead, however since SDK has already introduced among the capabilities of its next-generation platters, it’s evident that it expects to extend their areal density.
If SDK manages to extend per platter capability by 16% – 20% (a rise that Western Digital guarantees with its ePMR 2), then its companions will be capable to construct 30 TB+ arduous drives utilizing 10 platters. However, if SDK provides simply 10% extra per platter capability, constructing a 30 TB+ drive would require cramming 11 disks right into a 3.5-inch HDD. That is one thing that’s notably difficult each for SDK (platters need to get even thinner) and arduous drive makers.
Abstract
Whereas arduous drives have been evolving comparatively slowly as of late as a result of gradual adoption of EAMR strategies, it seems like HDD makers are lastly able to extra actively use EAMR and shingled recording going ahead. Not less than, all three HDD producers are speaking about 30 TB+ merchandise – and to realize this milestone, they must use an energy-assisted recording methodology.
For now, it seems like Western Digital has a expertise portfolio that can enable it to construct a ~ 30 TB HDD by subsequent yr. Showa Denko can also be assured of its next-generation platters that can enable its associate(s) to get to 30 TB by late 2023.
Seagate’s roadmap reveals its 30 TB+ HAMR drive in 2023, however the firm but has to reveal which applied sciences (aside from HAMR) this product will use. Toshiba’s public roadmap additionally signifies an 11-platter 30 TB MAS-MAR HDD will likely be out there in 2023 ~ 2024, demonstrating fairly some degree of confidence on their half.
