From Toshiba, here is the first 14 TB helium HDD with 9 plates
Thanks to the use of as many as nine plates and helium in the internal parts Toshiba has managed to cram 14 TB inside a hard disk.
Toshiba continues to push the limits of magnetic storage systems a little further, and the recent announcements of NAS hard disks and the MQ04 model, which offers 1TB of space inside a box only 7 mm thick, have been important. Over the weekend, the company announced a new, more traditional hard-disk model with the typical 3.5″ form factor, capable of accommodating as many as 14TB of space.
It is not the first hard-disk that offers this capability. However, it is the first that uses Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR), then recording data within a flat surface, as opposed to all other models that use the Shingled Magnetic Recording and then write the data within a more complex tile-like structure, with writing areas that are partially overlapping. It is obvious that the first approach offers superior performance.
The new MG07ACA series consists of two models: the top of the 14TB range that uses nine plates, and the 12TB entry-level that uses eight plates. The design with the presence of helium inside allows a higher storage density than the predecessors (MG06ACA), combined with lower energy consumption. These two features make the new disks more and more suitable to be implemented in large infrastructures designed for the cloud.
Toshiba uses proprietary laser technology to make sure that the helium in the body stays inside and maintains its properties over time. The new Japanese disks use the 6 Gbit / s SATA III interface with a rotation speed of 7,200 rpm, and the top of the 14 TB range offers a 40% improvement in storage compared to the previous 10 TB flagship, together with an energy efficiency of over 50%.
Thanks to the higher density, the new 14 TB disks can transfer data – according to what the company reports – at a speed of 260 MB/s, while the 12 TB model stops at 250 MB / s. The two models can reach 167 IOPS in reading and 70 in writing.
At the moment, we do not know when the new Toshiba MG07ACA will arrive on the market or the price (designed for corporate use), but some organizations are receiving the first test samples.
Finally, we answer a question that will be posed in many: why helium? The reason is simple. Helium has a density equal to one seventh compared to that of air, and this reduces drag forces on rotating plates and friction between discs and heads.
In this way, the energy consumption of the disks is reduced with 4.6W in idle and 7.6W in execution of reading and writing activities. An indisputably interesting result for big data centers and companies.
