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Seagate aims to offer budget 10TB HDDs by 2016

By Wong Chung Wee - on 30 Dec 2014, 1:47pm

Seagate aims to offer budget 10TB HDDs by 2016

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate aims to offer budget 10TB HDDs by 2016. In July 2014, the company was the first to ship 8TB drives and 10TB drives appeared to be just within reach. However, it was beaten by HGST that announced its first 10TB, helium-filled, 3.5-inch HDD just two months later, in early September.

Track Spacing enabled by SMR technology (Image Source: Seagate)

While the drives from HGST are targeted at data centers, Seagate appears to have taken aim at the mass market segment. By eschewing alternative technologies like sealing the drives with helium, Seagate claims to have kept the costs of its drives lower than HGST. In addition, its 10TB HDD boasts of shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology that allowed the drive to feature six platters, each with a capacity of 1.67TB.

SMR band structure (Image Source: Seagate)

In comparison with its earlier 8TB counterpart, the upcoming 10TB drive marks an improvement of 25- to 30% in terms of storage capacity. This is achieved without having to increase the number of platters. Seagate has acknowledged the shortcomings of SMR technology; however, the company claims that it can be mitigated by increasing the disk cache of the drive. Unlike its rival HGST, Seagate’s 10TB HDD will be targeted at the mass market user who requires low-cost large capacity archival solutions.

(Source: Akiba via Myce.com)

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