Seagate has shattered storage records by shipping its first 30TB+ HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) hard drives. These groundbreaking Exos Mozaic 3+ drives, designed for data centers and AI workloads, represent a significant leap in storage capacity, offering unprecedented areal density and efficiency for the burgeoning demands of big data.
A New Era of Storage Capacity
Seagate’s new Exos Mozaic 3+ hard drives mark a monumental achievement in data storage, pushing capacities beyond the 30TB threshold. This advancement is crucial for hyperscale data centers and the rapidly expanding field of artificial intelligence, which demand ever-increasing storage solutions.
- The Exos Mozaic 3+ family utilizes 10 platters, each storing over 3TB, to achieve its 30TB capacity.
- This represents a 25% improvement in areal bit density compared to Seagate’s previous best PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) hard drives.
- Seagate has a roadmap to further increase density to over 5TB per platter in the future, potentially doubling current areal density.
The HAMR Breakthrough
The core of this technological leap is Seagate’s implementation of Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). Unlike traditional PMR, HAMR uses a tiny laser to momentarily heat a spot on the recording media, allowing for much smaller and more densely packed magnetic bits.
- How HAMR Works: A nanophotonic laser built into the write head heats a specific spot on the iron-platinum (FePt) platter to 800°F for nanoseconds, lowering its magnetic coercivity. The magnetic head then writes the data bit, and the spot cools rapidly.
- Mozaic 3+ Platform: This comprehensive platform includes the FePt magnetic media, the plasmonic writer (which converts laser light into plasmons for heating), and a 7th-generation spintronic reader for sensing tiny magnetic bits.
- Controller Technology: A Seagate-developed hard disk controller chip, manufactured with a 12nm process node, manages the complex read/write operations and servo control.
Impact on Data Centers and AI
The introduction of 30TB HAMR drives is poised to revolutionize data storage for enterprise and AI applications, offering significant benefits in terms of capacity, power consumption, and cost efficiency.
- Doubled Storage Capacity: These new drives can double the storage capacity of existing systems without increasing their physical footprint.
- Reduced Power Consumption: The Exos Mozaic 3+ drives consume 40% less power per terabyte and embody 55% less carbon compared to conventional 16TB PMR drives.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Seagate anticipates these drives will offer a more affordable cost per terabyte, making mass-capacity storage more accessible.
- AI Workload Support: The massive capacity is critical for storing the foundational data sets required for building and improving high-quality AI models, addressing the surging demand from AI training and inference systems.
Availability and Market Position
Seagate has begun shipping evaluation units to hyperscale customers and expects full production ramp-up soon. While initially targeting enterprise markets, these drives are anticipated to become more widely available.
- Current Availability: Evaluation units are shipping to hyperscale customers, with broader availability expected in the near future.
- Pricing: While official retail pricing is not yet widely announced, early listings suggest prices around $618-$670 for the 30TB Exos M and IronWolf Pro models.
- Competitive Landscape: Seagate’s 30TB offering positions it at the forefront of high-capacity HDD technology, surpassing previous records set by competitors and setting a new benchmark for the industry.
Via Seagate
