Modern 20TB nine-platter HDDs have an area density of approximately 1.116Tb / inch². Seagate has demonstrated that its HAMR technology can support area densities up to 2.6Tb / inch², growing to 6Tb / inch² by 2030 to deliver 100TB 3.5 ”HDDs.
But HAMR is complicated in that it requires not only new heads, but new media as well, which is perhaps what could slow its adoption for mass-produced products. Another aspect to consider on hard drives with a single actuator is IOPS-per-TB performance, as they decrease as capacity increases, impacting system responsiveness and ultimately quality of service and this could be a problem for small corporate data centers, which may decide to wait for devices with a dual actuator.
We are well on the way to the launch of our family of more than 30TB units based on HAMR technology . We plan to start rolling out these HAMR-based products to customers within the next year.
In the course of 2023, therefore, hard drives based on the second generation HAMR platform with a capacity of over 30TB should be launched on the market. Unfortunately, without a precise release date it is quite difficult to predict, but it is possible, as in the past, that the company will start supplying selected customers with the new HDDs at the end of 2023, and then later make them widely available. br>