Seagate Ships First Industrial HAMR Laborious Drives
Seagate introduced this week that it had begun the primary business income shipments of its next-generation HAMR arduous drives, that are being shipped out as a part of Seagate’s newest Corvault storage methods. This commercialization marks an vital milestone within the HDDs market, as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is anticipated to allow arduous drives with capacities of fifty TB and past. In the meantime, HDDs using perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) applied sciences are anticipated to stay in the marketplace for the foreseeable future.
“We shipped our first HAMR-based Corvault system for income as deliberate throughout the June quarter,” said Gianluca Romano, chief monetary officer of Seagate, on the firm’s earnings name. “We anticipate broader availability of those CORVAULT methods by the tip of calendar 2023.“
Seagate officially disclosed in early June that its first HAMR-based HDDs function a 32 TB capability and use a well-known 10-platter platform. In the meantime, the corporate kept away from releasing particular capability particulars of the HAMR arduous drives utilized in these income Corvault methods.
Past Corvault methods, Seagate additionally shipped its HAMR-based arduous drives to key prospects amongst hyper scalers for testing and analysis. Hyperscalers, as a consequence of their in depth storage necessities, are anticipated to learn considerably from capability factors exceeding 30 TB. Although with the brand new know-how at hand, in addition to barely greater energy necessities for HAMR drives than commonplace PMR and SMR arduous drives, the hyperscalers are additionally enjoying it protected and completely validating the drives to make sure constant efficiency.
Seagate’s preliminary 32 TB HAMR arduous drives will use the corporate’s 10-platter platform, a system already confirmed and presently in use. Utilizing a longtime platform, Seagate successfully mitigates quite a few potential factors of failure, probably guaranteeing predictable manufacturing yield. That is good, given the introduction of latest media and write heads with its HAMR arduous drives. The identical 10-platter platform is anticipated for use for 36 TB, 40 TB, and even larger-capacity arduous drives sooner or later with as few alterations as doable.
“[We are] delivering on our 30+ TB HAMR product improvement and qualification milestones, with quantity ramp on observe to start in early calendar 2024,” stated Dave Mosley, chief government officer of Seagate.“[…] Preliminary buyer {qualifications} are progressing properly. We’re on observe to start quantity ramp in early calendar 2024. We’re additionally making ready {qualifications} with extra prospects, together with testing for decrease capability drives concentrating on VIA and enterprise OEM workloads.“
Though high-volume manufacturing of HAMR arduous drives is slated to start in roughly half a 12 months, Seagate additionally reaffirmed its plans for one more technology of PMR and SMR arduous drives throughout the name. These HDDs goal prospects not but prepared to change to HAMR know-how.
In response to Seagate, they plan to introduce 24TB+ drives that includes PMR know-how with two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) learn heads and SMR+TDMR within the close to future.
“Growth efforts on what could also be our final PMR product are nearing completion and can lengthen drive capacities into the mid-to-upper 20TB vary,” Mosley stated.
