New WD hard drives: For the first time, 11 drives spin for 32 TB 55 comments
Image: Business Wire
Seagate had announced the first 32 TB hard drives. Western Digital is now following suit with its first 32 TB hard drive. The Ultrastar DC HC690 uses 11 drives for the first time. Unlike Seagate, HAMR is not yet in use, just like SMR. With no overlapping tracks, Western Digital now offers up to 26TB.
In June, Western Digital had already delivered samples of the Ultrastar DC HC690 with 32 TB to business customers. Next comes the actual market launch, with the manufacturer talking about deliveries but not mentioning prices.
The Ultrastar DC HC690 with 32 TB uses so-called Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) with overlapped data tracks, while the Ultrastar DC HC590 with 26 TB uses Conventional Recording (CMR). The basis is identical for both: 11 magnetic disks (platters) now rotate for the first time in a 3.5-inch helium-filled housing. This alone provides ten percent more storage than previous 10-drive models. Toshiba had also previously announced an 11-platter model, but Western Digital was quicker to launch it.
While Seagate relies on HAMR technology and a 10-platter design for its 30TB hard drive with CMR and 32TB hard drive with SMR, Western Digital continues to rely on its energy-assisted PMR (ePMR ), as well as OptiNAND and a three-stage actuator. (Three-stage actuator).
Other key data
Both hard drives are models intended for continuous use in the data center and are designed with 2.5 million hours of MTBF, an average annual failure rate (AFR) of 0.35% and 600,000 cycles for the read/write heads.
The rotation speed is 7,200 rpm and the cache contains 512 MB of data. The maximum data transfer rate for the HC690 with 32TB is 269MB/s; for the HC590 with 26 TB, 302 MB/s should be achieved. Hard drives consume about 5.5 watts in standby and about 9 or 10 watts in random play. Variants with SATA or SAS interfaces are available.
The new hard drives will also be offered in the Ultrastar Data60 (60 hard drives) and Data102 (102 hard drives) hybrid storage platforms. These then offer a total of 1.92 Petabytes or 3.26 Petabytes of storage space.
WD Gold with 26TB
The WD Gold enterprise hard drive series is also expanding with a 26TB 11-drive model. With 7200 rpm, 512 MB cache and 285 MB/s, the specifications are very similar to the HC590 with 26TB. Western Digital hasn’t revealed pricing here yet either.
WD Gold 26TB with CMR (Image: Western Digital) Topics: Western Digital Hard Drive Storage Source: Western Digital
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