Western Digital (WD) has shared a plan to extend HDD space for storing, with the purpose of releasing 40TB laborious drives by the top of 2026. Nonetheless, that is only a single step on the way in which to 100TB laborious drives within the far future.
It is a large leap, and it is potential due to Warmth-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) expertise. HAMR expertise is a crucial a part of WD’s long-term plan to succeed in and exceed 100TB laborious drives inside the subsequent ten years. For now, the corporate is utilizing different applied sciences like OptiNAND and UltraSMR to extend space for storing as a lot as potential till HAMR turns into extra inexpensive and matches anticipated buyer demand.
HAMR makes use of laser heating to quickly decrease the magnetic resistance of the laborious drive’s disk. It will imply considerably denser information writing, translating to larger drive storage capacities. Western Digital believes its true potential begins at 40TB.
OptiNAND integrates flash reminiscence with HDDs to spice up capability, efficiency, and reliability. It primarily combines HDDs’ excessive capability with flash reminiscence’s velocity and reliability. UltraSMR (Extremely Scalable Magnetic Recording) makes use of superior error correction to pack information tracks extra densely than conventional SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording). It is mainly a technique to extend storage density on the prevailing HDD expertise earlier than transitioning absolutely to HAMR.
The corporate has chosen to attend earlier than absolutely adopting HAMR. Whereas some opponents are already utilizing HAMR in 30TB drives, WD believes the expertise will likely be simplest on the 40TB degree. Moreover, beginning large-scale HAMR manufacturing earlier than demand rises would result in a lot larger prices.
This anticipated rise in demand is tied to the fast development of AI. WD predicts that storage wants will develop considerably within the second half of 2026 because of the rising quantity of information created by AI functions. The corporate is timing its growth of high-capacity HAMR-based laborious drives to match this anticipated demand, which is able to assist maintain prices down and make the very best use of sources.
Kimihiko Nishio, gross sales supervisor for Western Digital Japan, advised PC Watch, “Proper now, there’s an enormous surge in demand for generative AI, however storage hasn’t actually benefited from it but. Presently, the largest beneficiaries are GPU servers. First, information is being generated in giant volumes, and after that, it’s going to should be saved. That’s the place we anticipate storage demand to spike.”
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This cautious timing is a crucial a part of WD’s plan to succeed in its long-term purpose of providing laborious drives with greater than 100TB of storage by 2030, utilizing Warmth Dot Magnetic Recording (HDMR) expertise. HDMR, which some anticipate to be the following main development in laborious drive expertise, will use nano-patterned magnetic storage to extend information density and capability additional than ever earlier than.
Seagate, WD’s largest competitor, has already launched a 36TB HAMR drive and introduced plans for a 60TB mannequin. Making issues extra difficult, Seagate not too long ago purchased Intevac, an organization that makes specialised HAMR manufacturing gear. Intevac’s expertise is utilized by most laborious drive producers worldwide, together with WD, which might create a provide chain problem.
That is mainly a great distance of claiming that 40TB laborious drives are potential and regarded one step in attending to 100TB. The businesses which might be within the race for 100TB simply wish to be sure that there’s a monetary incentive to make laborious drives. Whilst you or I’ll not want them, AI corporations will seemingly be purchasers of the expertise since AI makes use of a lot reminiscence.
Past conventional laborious drive expertise, WD can also be engaged on extra superior storage options. The corporate is researching DNA-based and ceramic-based storage, which might supply extraordinarily excessive storage density and long-term information preservation for archival functions. So, locations like medical analysis services, science labs, libraries, and extra might use these storage choices.