Toshiba Successfully Demonstrates Nearline HDDs with Massive Capacity of Over 30TB

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba) has successfully achieved storage capacities of over 30 TB with two next-generation large capacity recording technologies for hard disk drives (HDDs): Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR). The demonstration drives represent a major milestone in the advance toward commercial products based on each of these emerging recording formats.

HAMR, one of the two technologies that are driving forward next-generation high-capacity data recording, boosts magnetic recording capabilities by locally heating the disk with near-field light. Toshiba achieved 32 TB on 10 disks and adoption of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. Toshiba plans to start shipping test sample HDDs with HAMR technology in 2025.

The other technology is MAMR, which uses microwaves to enhance magnetic recording capabilities. Toshiba was the first to demonstrate its effectiveness and started mass production of first-generation drives in 2021. Toshiba achieved 31 TB by stacking 11 disks, utilizing SMR technology, and improving signal processing.

These new achievements were made possible through years of close collaborative work with Resonac Corporation, a HDD media manufacturer, and TDK Corporation, a HDD head manufacturer. Toshiba and its working partners are committed to continue developing both HAMR and MAMR technologies in order to provide higher capacity HDDs to meet the growing storage demand of the cloud and datacenters.

A technical lecture detailing the demonstration will be presented at the IDEMA Symposium scheduled for May 16.