Toshiba shows hard drive with over 30 terabytes capacity
13.1.2022
Translation: machine translated
New read and write technology is said to let hard drives store over 20 percent more data. Toshiba has presented a prototype with over 30 terabytes.
Hard drives with a storage capacity of over 30 terabytes are coming. When? "Soon," says a Toshiba press release. The Japanese company is working on improving its read and write technology MAS-MAMR. This stands for "Microwave Assisted Switching - Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording". A corresponding prototype has been presented to the public.
This technology, or one comparable to it, is needed to expand hard disk storage. Simply installing more storage media is not possible. A hard disk still has to fit into a normal PC case.
MAS-MAMR in detail
A hard disk is a magnetic storage medium. That's why data will be destroyed if a disk comes in contact with a strong magnet. The older generations among us still know this well from floppy disks. These work on the same principle and were far more susceptible to magnets.
Data itself is stored on round disks, written to or read from by read/write heads. This looks something like a record player with its reading arm. Just much smaller.
MAS-MAMR does not fundamentally reinvent the process of data storage, but adds a microwave transmitter to the read/write head. This pushes magnetic particles to approximately the right location before the write head performs the storage. Toshiba thus manages to increase the density of the data on the disk. The manufacturer can thus store more data in the same space. The industry portal heise.de reports that up to 20 percent more data can be stored in the same space.
For this development, Toshiba has enlisted the help of SDK and TDK, both memory manufacturers. Together, they have adapted heads and platters - the disks inside the hard disk - and installed a double microwave transmitter. This has the sounding name "bi-oscillation type spin torque oscillator device (dual FGL STO)".
In order for the 30 terabytes - 30,000 gigabytes - to be installed in hard drives, both the platters and the heads have to be rebuilt. In other words, even if the hard drive looks the same on the outside as it has for 30 years, everything inside is new.
Large memory is necessary
Toshiba advertises their hard drive, which holds 18 terabytes, during the announcement of the new development. That's the Toshiba MG09, which isn't the largest hard drive on the market yet, but it's about at the limit of current technology, which is about 20 terabytes.
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