Seagate is making progress with its hard drives: at an academic conference in Japan, the brand presented a laboratory prototype with a capacity per platter of a handsome 6.9 TB. On a 10-platter disk, as is currently the case, this gives a total capacity of 69 TB! However, Seagate’s roadmap seems to be moving towards 8-platter disks for 55TB capacity.
6.9TB per platter – that’s the capacity Seagate has managed to achieve on its hard disks in the laboratory!
Clearly, mechanical storage is not about to disappear, as research and development continues around this storage technology. The brand is actively working on its HAMR technology to push storage capacities even further, reaching 6.9 TB per platter. What’s more, the brand’s ambition is to reach even higher capacities with 7TB by the 2030s, and to go even further with 15TB!
Of course, to be able to offer such capacities in the laboratory is already a feat, but there’s still a long way to go before mass-production. Indeed, the brand needs to master the performance, reliability, stability, endurance, etc., etc., of its products. Because if it’s just a matter of offering disks with record-breaking capacities that break down after a few months’ use, it’s not worth it. The same goes for cost control. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), hard disks are facing competition from SSDs, which offer advantages in terms of speed. So, to be convincing, a hard disk must distinguish itself on consumption and, above all, on an advantageous price/TB.
However, while Seagate aims to increase the density per platter in order to increase the total capacity of its disks, other competitors are increasing the number of platters, following the example of Toshiba, which has managed to go up to 12 platters. How is this achieved? By switching to glass.