WD presented the most capacious hard drives in the world – 32 TB with UltraSMR and 26 TB with CMR

Western Digital has released a hard drive with a record capacity of 32 TB. It is built on the world’s first commercially available 11-wafer platform and features a number of design improvements, as well as various technologies including OptiNAND, ArmorCache and Three Stage Actuator (TSA). The new product uses UltraSMR technology in combination with ePMR. A 26 TB HDD with traditional CMR recording was also presented.

Image source: Western Digital

The 32 TB HDD is based on UltraSMR advanced tiled magnetic recording and second-generation energy-saving perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) technologies with improved recording heads. UltraSMR increases storage density by 20% compared to traditional magnetic recording (CMR) technology, and ePMR allows for higher storage density than standard PMR technology.

The AI ​​boom has become a growth engine for the data storage industry. As the complexity of AI systems increases, they process and generate huge amounts of data, for which no more efficient storage solution has yet been found than hard drives. For today’s data-intensive workloads, the company offers the world’s largest ePMR CMR hard drives, up to 26 TB.

UltraStar DC HC690 SMR 32TB HDDs provide highly scalable and cost-effective storage of cold content. Data transfer speed is 257 MB/s, and power consumption in idle mode is only 5.5 W.

The 26 TB Ultrastar DC HC590 CMR hard drives already available for order are positioned by the manufacturer as “a simple replacement for continuous capacity growth with a reliable, field-tested technological basis.” A constant data transfer rate of 288 MB/s is declared with a consumption of 5.6 W in standby mode.

WD notes that the new Ultrastar hard drives easily integrate into the Ultrastar Data60 and Data102 JBOD hybrid storage platforms, which provide scalable solutions for data centers, clouds and big data analytics. These platforms provide flexible configurations, accommodating up to 60 or 102 hard drives, with a maximum storage capacity of 3.26 PB. IsoVibe and ArcticFlow technologies provide reduced vibration and optimized cooling.

WD Gold SATA 26TB hard drives are designed specifically for system integrators and resellers. According to the manufacturer, they are “a no-compromise storage solution that incorporates our latest innovations to handle heavy, continuous read-write workloads in the most challenging enterprise and commercial system environments.” WD Gold drives are backed by a five-year limited warranty with up to 2.5 million hours between failures.

«”Our CMR and UltraSMR technologies don’t just break records, they give customers the efficiency and total cost of ownership benefits they’ve been asking for, and more,” said Ravi Pendekanti, senior vice president of product management for Western Digital’s HDD business unit. Pendekanti). “By providing the industry’s highest ePMR capacity available today, we provide our customers with the storage efficiency, scalability, reliability and unmatched value they need to stay ahead.”