Seagate Unleashes Technology to Power 100+ Terabyte HDDs

XBitLabs ^ | 03/25/2004 | 07:49 AM | Anton Shilov

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Seagate Unleashes Technology to Power 100+ Terabyte HDDs

HAMR from Seagate to Allow 100TB Storage Solutions

by Anton Shilov
03/25/2004 | 07:49 AM

Seagate Technology on Thursday is presenting research findings pointing toward data storage densities of 50 terabits per square inch or more at the American Physical Society (APS) conference. The move could eventually enable astonishingly large storage products.

At 50 terabits (Tb) per square inch densities, over 3.5 million high-resolution photos, 2800 audio CDs, 1600 hours of television, or the entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress could be stored onto recording media about the size of a single coin, such as a half dollar (30.61mm). Seagate’s research team is currently developing the technology, called Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), which is expected to enable these ultra-high storage densities.

With areal density of 6.25TB (Terrabyte) per square inch, 3.5” typical platter would be able to hold up about 49TB of data on one side. Two sides of such platter would handle about 98TB of information. Usually HDDs have from one to five platters inside, the maximum storage capabilities of upcoming HDDs would be up to 490TB, or approximately 0.5 of Petabyte. However, Seagate storage capacity may be limited by about 200TB, as the company does not use more than 2 platters in its HDDs today.

Nowadays platters have areal density of up to 70Gb per square inch. The world’s largest HDD can hold up to 400GB of data.

HAMR technology will significantly extend the capacity of modern magnetic disc drives that use magnetic heads to read and write digital data onto spinning platters. HAMR achieves higher densities by using a laser-beam or other energy source to heat the recording medium at the same time that data bits are being recorded. HAMR technology will also achieve its high areal densities at a cost structure on pace with the hard disc drives of today, making it a key enabling storage technology that will allow the adoption of mass storage to continue to enter emerging markets.

Seagate’s Research division has worked on HAMR technology in addition to other promising storage technologies since its research center was first founded in 1998. Seagate estimates that HAMR technology will be used in disc drive devices initially at 1Tb (terabit) per square inch densities, with a time to market of approximately 2010.

Dr. Terry McDaniel, Seagate recording physicist and APS member, will give the presentation entitled, “Ultimate Limits to Thermally Assisted Magnetic Recording.” The presentation is part of the American Physical Society session V6 series, “Ultimate Limits to Data Storage.” This work was performed as part of the Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC) program in Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording, with the support of the US Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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Discussion

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Discussion started: 03/25/04
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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I want several terabyte drives.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[GeronL]

Holy Gigamoly

A few of those might keep FR from running out of space for a bit.

[ThePythonicCow]

They've been working on HAMR for several years - since 1998 anyway. Here's another posting, from Newsfactor.com dated August 28, 2002, describing this and related efforts:

New Hard-Drive Tech Overcomes Magnetic Memory Problems



By Jay Lyman
SCI:TECH
August 28, 2002 8:05AM

Seagate researchers now believe they can store as much as 50 terabits per square inch -- equivalent to the entire printed contents of the Library of Congress -- on a single disk drive for a notebook computer. Hard-drive maker Seagate said it has overcome a significant challenge in magnetic memory with a new technology capable of achieving far beyond today's storage densities -- up to as great as 50 terabits per square inch. Currently, the highest storage densities hover around 50 gigabits per square inch, but Seagate said its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology could break through the so-called superparamagnetic limit -- a memory boundary based on data bits so small they become magnetically unstable.

By heating the memory medium with a laser-generated beam at the precise spot where data bits are being recorded, HAMR dramatically increases density -- and substantially improves the outlook for magnetic recording, according to Seagate.

The need for higher storage density -- the number of data bits stored on a disk surface -- already has been addressed with smaller bits, but these data chunks are becoming so small that they will be magnetically unstable within the next five to 10 years, researchers said. "HAMR is designed, in part, to overcome the paramagnetism limit," Seagate spokesperson John Paulsen told NewsFactor, adding that the technology will be incorporated in products between five and 10 years from now.

Seagate -- which recently demonstrated the HAMR technology at the opening of its new research center in Pittsburgh -- maintains that heating the disk and recording components makes it easier to write information, which is stabilized with subsequent cooling.

To Terabit and Beyond

While the technology was originally expected to accommodate one terabit of data per square inch -- which Paulsen called "extremely high compared to today's standards," Seagate researchers now believe they can store as much as 50 terabits per square inch -- equivalent to the entire printed contents of the Library of Congress -- on a single disk drive for a notebook computer.

A different technology, under development at the University at Buffalo in New York, promises to provide a nanoscale sensor capable of reading ever-smaller bits of data. The sensor could result in DVD movie storage on small devices or even a supercomputer the size of a wristwatch, UB officials told NewsFactor.

IBM scientists also recently announced they could compress massive amounts of data into one terabit per square inch, nearly 20 times more than the most dense magnetic storage solutions currently available.

Magnetic Stays Mainstream

While other technologies, such as holographic optical storage, show promise in the storage of massive amounts of data, Seagate claims magnetic recording will remain the preferred form of mass storage. "With technologies like [holographic optical storage], what you've got is something that's much more expensive for the storage density you get," Paulsen said. "Magnetic technologies are mature, and they've been on a trajectory."

IDC research manager Dave Reinsel agreed, calling the HAMR technology "a glimpse of future magnetic recording technology." Reinsel said that technologies like HAMR "will continue to keep disk drives as the preferred mass storage device for mainstream computing for many years to come."

[ShadowAce]

I *need* several of these.... :)

[Dallas59]

Time hook up the Cam and record every thing in the house....

[old-ager]

Within the last few months, one of the regular tech-freepers posted an article saying magnetic drives were about to plateau in storage capacity. A few wise ones chimed in to concur. Nice to see this story today.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Within the last few months, one of the regular tech-freepers posted an article saying magnetic drives were about to plateau in storage capacity. A few wise ones chimed in to concur. Nice to see this story today.

It always seems to happen just when some technology has gone a long ways and seems to be as far as you can possibly go, someone has an idea, and away we go again.

__________________________________________________________________________

Currently, the highest storage densities hover around 50 gigabits per square inch, but Seagate said its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology could break through the so-called superparamagnetic limit -- a memory boundary based on data bits so small they become magnetically unstable.

By heating the memory medium with a laser-generated beam at the precise spot where data bits are being recorded, HAMR dramatically increases density -- and substantially improves the outlook for magnetic recording, according to Seagate.

Why does heating increase the memory density so dramatically?

[ThePythonicCow]

Why does heating increase the memory density so dramatically?

We're reaching the point where the limit on how small a bit on a drive is depends not on our ability to read or write very small bits, but on the instability of such a small bit of magnetic field.

Heated material is easier to change. So with the heat, we can use magnetic material that is more resistant to change, to the point that we couldn't change it with a normal write head. Only when it's hot, can we change it. Then it cools down, returning to its more change resistant state.

So I'd expect such drives to have less tolerant environmental specs for high temperature. Whether this means that a drive left in a hot car becomes at risk for increased data errors or not, I don't know. Probably not, but that's perhaps one of the tradeoffs that have to be made before this technology is practical.

[boris]

Terabyte
1,099,511,627,776 or 2⁴⁰;
approx. 1,000,000,000,000 or 10¹²

1 Terabyte: Automated tape robot; all the X-ray films in a large technological hospital; 50,000 trees made into paper and printed;
daily rate of EOS (Earth Orbiting System) data (1998)

2 Terabytes: Academic research library

10 Terabytes: Printed collection of the U. S. Library of Congress
50 Terabytes: Contents of a large mass storage system