First a quick summary of this article: https://www.sdk.co.jp/english/news/2020/37882.html
SDK Develops HAMR-Technology-based HD Media
What does it mean?
HAMR = Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording
It is a new type of HD media that uses thin films of Fe-Pt magnetic alloy and a new structure of magnetic layers and new ways of controlling temperature during HD media production.
So, the new product has magnetic coercivity several times as high as the existing most-advanced HD media.
Currently we are at about 1.14 Tb per square inch of HD media.
This new tech will bring a density of about 5-6 Tb per square inch of HD media.
Assuming that the same number of platters are used, it’s estimated that a 3.5-inch HDD will achieve storage capacity of approximately 70-80 TB per unit.
What does it mean for me?
For home use, the idea of rebuilding an 80TB array seems crazy. It would take forever!
However, this home user currently has a few storage expansions with 8-12 TB HDDs grouped together with UnionFilesystems, and that setup does make me a bit nervous and building multiple machines is also a pain.
To ditch those pooled drives and just have one, is pretty enticing.
It seems that this amount of HDD storage makes more sense for the data center or business backup. Maybe another nail in tape’s coffin?
With LTO-8 (unveiled in 2017) we can store up to 30TB per tape. Hard drives are catching up.
The LTO road map shows LTO Ultrium generation 12 tape cartridge hitting 480TB with compression, but that’ll take awhile.
80TB seems like a dream, but previous releases say that’s not the case:
- In 1990, there were 100 Megabyte drives
- In 2000, there were 50 Gigabyte drives
- In 2010, there were 1 Terabyte drives
- In 2020, there will be 20 Terabyte drives.
- In 2025, there will be 100 Terabyte drives. (https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/new-storage-roadmap-shows-100tb-hdds-in-2025.html)
So, this 80 TB drive is not some kind of weird dream that will never happen.
We’re looking forward to it!