Seagate promised at its latest investor conference this week that the third quarter of the year should mark the start of mass production of the new generation of HAMR-based hard drives. The expectation is that the launch will be anticipated later this year, serving the consumer and corporate market with components of up to 30 TB of storage.
You HAMR hard drives with 40TB of storage expected in 2024 or 2025while 50TB models could arrive in 2026.
The company’s current investment is in heat-assisted magnetic recording (the so-called HAMR), which uses a laser diode connected to each recording head to momentarily heat a small spot on the disc so that the bits of data recorded on a magnetic platter become smaller and more densely packed. Second generation HAMR platters will eventually be able to store 5TB each.
Seagate has already shipped limited quantities of HAMR-enabled HDDs to selected customers for testing, but the technology is apparently almost ready for mass production. The company must still use conventional magnetic recording technologies in future 22TB and 24TB models.
For now, the main problem with HAMR drives is performance, but the idea is that in the coming years heat-assisted technology will also be applied to more basic and intermediate HDD models.
