Seagate has already started working on the development of its second-generation HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) HDDs with a capacity of up to 30 TB. These drives are slated to hit the market sometime in late 2023 or 2024 (before FY2025), targeting the general audience. In comparison, the first-generation HAMR drives were produced in limited quantities and shipped to select clients.
The 20 TB HAMR HDDs have been on sale since December last year, and according to Seagate CFO Gianluca Romano, the supply has been sufficient for all its major clients. According to reports, the 20 TB HAMR drives have a disk surface storage density of approximately 1.116Tb per square inch. The previous demonstration reached 2.6Tb per square inch without pressure. It is expected to achieve 6Tb per square inch by 2030, thus creating a 100TB 3.5-inch mechanical hard drive.
For mechanical HDDs, Seagate is focusing on two main technologies: HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) and multiple read-write arms (Multi Actuator Technology) which are used to increase both disk capacity and transfer speeds. The company is targeting 2026 to launch its 50 TB HDDs, the next step in its mission to launch 100 TB drives in the next 10 years.
We have a 20TB HAMR that we actually started to sell in December last year, we are just producing enough quantity that we can sell to our main customers so that they get familiar with the new drive. We are developing our second-generation HAMR drive that will be probably around 30TB. That is the drive that we want to ramp in volume.
Gianluca Romano, Seagate’s CFO, at Citi 2021 Global Technology Virtual Conference (via SeekingAlpha)
