Toshiba, the third-largest manufacturer of hard drives, has unveiled its latest products: the 24TB MG11 and the 28TB MA11. The MG11 employs conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology, while the MA11 features shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology.
Seagate was the first competitor to introduce similar models about a year ago, launching the CMR 24TB Exos X24 and the 28TB SMR variant. Western Digital entered the market at the end of 2023 with the Ultrastar DC HC580 (24TB) and HC680 (28TB SMR). Prior to this release, Toshiba’s flagship HDD was the 22TB MG10F.
The new MG11 and MA11 hard drives are designed with a 3.5-inch form factor, each containing 10 platters, helium-filled, and equipped with 1GB of NAND flash for caching. These drives operate at 7,200 RPM, enabling a maximum throughput of 309MBps. In comparison, Seagate’s and Western Digital’s products feature cache sizes of 515MBps and achieve maximum throughputs of 295MBps and 298MBps, respectively.
Toshiba’s drives incorporate their unique FC-MAMR technology (flux-control microwave-assisted magnetic recording), which enhances write precision by altering the magnetic properties of the disk platter using microwaves. This approach allows for higher data density per track compared to conventional HDDs, where the magnetic field is broader and less accurate, resulting in lower overall capacity.
The MG11 supports connectivity via 6Gbps SATA and 12Gbps SAS, while the MA11 is limited to 6Gbps SATA, yielding a throughput of about 150MBps, roughly half that of the MG11.
SMR technology involves overlapping successive data tracks like roof tiles. However, a key limitation of SMR drives is that modifying data on a track requires rewriting adjacent tracks. Consequently, SMR drives are best suited for data that is written once and stored for retrieval, such as backups, archives, or read-only documents. Hyperscale operators often utilize SMR drives for cold storage due to their capability to navigate the limitations associated with superposed tracks.
In the near future, Seagate plans to announce its next-generation HDDs, offering 30TB in CMR and 32TB in SMR configurations. This comes amid ongoing price advantages for spinning disk hard drives (SAS and SATA) compared to flash drives, with HDD costs per gigabyte remaining relatively stable at approximately $0.039/GB, while flash costs hover around $0.085/GB. Earlier this year, the cost per gigabyte for spinning disks was $0.041/GB in early April, with the current averages between $0.041/GB for SAS and $0.036/GB for SATA.
Earlier this year, Rainer Kaese, Toshiba Electronics Europe’s senior manager for storage product business development, shared in a podcast with Computer Weekly that he anticipates hard drives could reach capacities of 40TB or even 50TB in the coming decades, with the potential for hundreds of terabytes, although not all of it may be commercially viable.