Showa Denko Starts Shipment of 2.6TB Disk Media for 26TB Nearline HDD

Showa Denko K.K. started shipment of 3.5-inch HD media to be used in 26TB HDD, which has the largest storage capacity the HDD industry has produced ⁽¹⁾.

This HD media support energy-assisted magnetic recording ⁽²⁾ and SMR ⁽³⁾. This time, by introducing its latest magnetic layer design and technology to produce fine crystals of magnetic substance on the surface of aluminum platter, the company developed HD media which have storage capacity of 2.6TB per platter, the largest one in the industry.

Thus, this HD media have pioneered the age of HD media having recording density of 1TB/in² or higher, and the firm combined technology to produce fine crystals of magnetic substance with technology to improve rewrite-cycle endurance on the surface of HD media, while maintaining compatibility with SMR. It will accelerate development of HD media further, and aim to realize near-line HDD having storage capacity of more than 30TB by the end of 2023.

Due to the spread of cloud-computing service and increase in video content, data centers need HDDs with larger storage capacity. In the field of HD media, which are key part of HDDs and affect their storage capacities, the company has been putting topflight products onto the market before others.

⁽¹⁾ As of May 9, 2022
⁽²⁾ Energy-assisted magnetic recording is a technology to record data on the surface of HD media with density higher than those achieved through conventional recording technologies, by pouring energy into magnetic substances which have high coercivity and assisting reversal of magnetization.
⁽³⁾ Shingled magnetic recording is a technology to record data on the surface of HD media with high density by piling up a part of magnetic layers one another like singles.