Toshiba squeezes 12 glass platters into one hard drive
From 2027, Toshiba wants to sell 40 TB hard drives. To achieve this, the manufacturer is switching the carrier material from aluminum to glass.
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Toshiba announces as the first hard drive manufacturer HDDs with twelve data disks (in industry jargon, platters). So far, however, Toshiba has only “verified” the necessary technology, as the company states in a press release.
In 2027, corresponding HDDs for data centers and servers are to be released. Toshiba initially plans to launch 40-terabyte-class hard drives, meaning with at least 40 TB capacity.
So far, a maximum of eleven platters are ready for series production on Western Digital's hard drives. Otherwise, ten are common, including at Toshiba. The manufacturer is thus increasing density by 20 percent. Western Digital, on the other hand, would already show diminishing marginal returns: the switch from eleven to twelve platters would only bring a 9.1 percent advantage.
Switch from aluminum to Glass
For twelve platters to fit into a classic 3.5-inch housing, each platter must become thinner than before. For this, Toshiba is switching from aluminum to glass as the carrier material for the magnetic tracks. The manufacturer is likely working with the Japanese supplier Hoya, which already showcased suitable glass platters for 12-disk stacks in a hard drive in 2017.
At that time, Hoya reduced the height of a platter to 0.381 millimeters. That is less than two standard business cards stacked on top of each other. Aluminum platters for HDDs are around 0.6 mm.
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First with MAMR, then perhaps HAMR
With the glass platters, Toshiba wants to extend the life of MAMR (Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology, which will continue to be used in the 40 TB hard drives. In this process, a tiny microwave transmitter is located in each write head, which introduces additional energy into the magnetic material during writing. This causes the magnetic particles to jump into the correct direction, allowing the platters to be written more densely.
In the long term, Toshiba also wants to switch to HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology. Here, a fine laser heats a small part of the platter to reduce the magnetic field strength required for a write operation, thus increasing data density. Toshiba is currently researching the combination of HAMR and twelve glass platters.
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