Although everybody pretty much agrees that you need an SSD as the boot device for a modern computer (especially macOS and Windows), there is still no alternative to hard drives for affordable bulk-storage, especially in server environments like data centers.
And Western Digital has just announced new HDD tech:
The new technologies are:
- High Bandwidth Drive Technology (HBDT) enables simultaneous reads and writes from multiple heads on multiple tracks, delivering up to double the bandwidth of conventional drives without power penalties.
- Dual Pivot Technology (DPT) adds a second set of independently operating actuators on a separate pivot (I think this means a second set of heads), delivering up to twice the sequential IO performance.
WD’s goal is to ship a device with both of these technologies, capable of delivering up to 4x the bandwidth of current drives - about 1.2 GB/s - without using more power than a standard HDD.
The article does mention the fact that the SATA interface has a top speed of 550 MB/s. Although the article doesn’t mention it, I assume these new drives will need to use a new and faster interface - maybe a SATA-4 protocol or something PCIe-based - in order to keep up with the higher speeds.
In addition to HBDT and DPT, the article also mentioned development and improvement in current technologies designed to increase capacity:
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Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is designed to greatly increase capacity. WD says 100 TB drives with this technology can be expected to ship “by 2029”.
The article strongly implies, but does not say, that HBDT and DPT will also debut on these 100 TB drives in 2029.
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Energy-Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (ePMR) is the next generation of PMR (the dominant technology for so-called “CMR” drives). WD expects that this tech will produce 40 TB drives by the end of this year and 60 TB in a few years.