Seagate has been firing on all cylinders in January 2024 because it launched the world’s first 30 TB arduous disk drive (and the largest arduous drive ever produced), the Exos X Mozaic 3+with the promise of far more to return together with a 50 TB HDD (extra on that later).
Lots of it’s possible you’ll not know but it surely gained’t be Seagate’s first 50 TB+ storage gadget (ed: Take a look at our checklist of the finest arduous drives proper now).
Again in August 2016, the storage firm demoed a 60TB SSD at Flash Reminiscence Summit, yep, that’s practically eight years in the past, one which might have simply acquired a slot in our finest SSD information). The unnamed drive had a 3.5-inch kind issue, the identical as arduous disk drives, a SAS (Serial Connected SCSI) interface and featured ultra-dense NAND know-how rom Micron, reaching what was then a brand new low in energy effectivity (4TB per watt or 15W to energy the entire gadget).
All go
Seagate went quiet on the drive ever since and for the primary time ever, I’ve been capable of get an official assertion from the corporate on what might have been a sport changer again within the days.
A Seagate spokesperson instructed me “With time and given constraints, all corporations need to make selections relating to their priorities. For instance, we have seen a variety of roadmap reprioritizations through the newest financial downturn. It made sense for us to reevaluate our priorities as a result of the surroundings was very dynamic on the time, together with some trade consolidation that compelled reevaluations throughout the board. So, we targeted on the place we now have our biggest benefit. Our identification has at all times been a frontrunner in arduous drive storage know-how. Maintaining in thoughts that SSD storage continues to be costlier than arduous drives on the ratio of about 5:1 per TB, our choice to deal with areal density innovation for arduous drives makes good enterprise sense to us.”
So there you go: it was all all the way down to enjoying in your strengths relatively than working after know-how the place you don’t have a novel promoting level (Seagate used Micron NAND again then). The acquisition of Sandisk by Western Digital – introduced in October 2015, simply 10 months earlier – may need been the catalyst for that call. Sandisk introduced NAND manufacturing capabilities to Western Digital, Seagate’s HDD archrival, permitting for vertical integration and economies of scale, one thing that Seagate couldn’t match.
Vertical integration is the important thing right here. Throughout a dialog I had with BS Teh, the corporate’s Government Vice President and Chief Business Officer forward of the launch of the Exos X Mozaic 3+, it was obvious that controlling the complete {hardware} stack was instrumental to Seagate gaining a lead within the capability race. The corporate isn’t utilizing Resonac, the world chief in arduous drive platters, relying as a substitute by itself dwelling grown know-how.
That will clarify why Seagate has delayed the launch of its 50TB arduous disk drive to a 24-month window (2027 to 2028), as a substitute of the unique schedule (2026). What comes subsequent? Nicely, Seagate’s BS Teh has confirmed that tough drive platters with capacities larger than 5TB will come afterwards, which can imply 6TB (or 60TB HDD, if utilizing 10 platters) in 2029. For that to occur would require a large enchancment within the precise areal density, as measured in Tb per sq. inch; the present report holder is Seagate’s personal 30TB drive at 1.742 Tb/si.
