By 2025, we should have mega internal hard drives, according to the hard disk drive and storage product manufacturer, Western Digital (WD). Developments in technology will make huge storage capacity possible.
MAMR is the magic word
“Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording” (MAMR) is the name of the new technology WD is using to dramatically increase the storage capacity of hard drives over the next few years. MAMR uses an innovative print element called the “spin torque oscillator”, which generates a microwave field. With this, it is possible for magnetic data carriers with significantly more bits per area to be detailed, as the printing procedure requires less magnetic power. In addition, the MAMR hard drives then use helium instead of air to reduce internal complications.
The future is bright
With this new technology, Western Digital hopes to be available on the market from 2019, though with smaller storage capacity to start with. The 40TB version of the HDDs (hard disk drives) have already been announced, and should be available from 2025. Although mechanical hard drives do not have the speed or reliability of SSDs (solid state drives), they are much cheaper. Therefore, these internal hard drives will be especially interesting for data centres and cloud storage providers.
