First Seagate HAMR 30TB drive unveiled as Mozaic 3+

If you're involved in the data industry, you likely caught wind of Seagate's recent announcement regarding their 30TB hard drives. While incremental capacity upgrades are commonplace, this one stands out as it marks the introduction of Seagate's innovative HAMR technology. Here's the lowdown on these groundbreaking drives.

HAMR is one of the many Energy Assisged Magnetic Recording Techniques. Expect to see similar capacities from other vendors soon

HAMR, or Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, represents one of several Energy Assisted Magnetic Recording techniques, where data is written to the hard drive with the assistance of energy.

Seagate HAMR This involves treating the platter with heat first (the "H" in HAMR), distinguishing it from WD's approach, which involves microwaves (the "M" in MAMR). While I won't delve into the specifics of EAMR, HAMR, or MAMR, it's noteworthy that similar capacities using comparable technology can be expected from other brands in the near future.

Host-Agnostic, 7200 RPM, 2.5M Hour MTBF... Exos drives

These host-agnostic drives operate seamlessly with standard SATA or SAS connections, requiring no special accommodations on your host system. Like other Exos drives, they maintain a 7200 RPM speed, offer a 5-year limited warranty, and boast a 2.5 million-hour MTBF.

Whatever technology is used under the hood - PMR, or HAMR the drive appears as as SATA ( or SAS) drive to the host and everything else is managed internally.

Mozaic3+ for 3TB Per platter.

Seagate has branded its inaugural HAMR drive as Mozaic 3+, with the "3," denoting the impressive 3TB per platter capacity achieved. As the technology advances, we can anticipate future iterations such as Mozaic 4+ or Mozaic 6+.

30TB CMR is 32TB SMR

It's interesting to note that despite the existence of a 32TB SMR drive (10-platter SMR), Seagate has chosen not to emphasize it in their PR headlines, likely due to the unfavorable publicity associated with SMR in the past. The currently listed part numbers include the following

ST32TB00000 : 32TB SMR drive ( 10 Platter )
ST24TB00000 : 24TB CMR Drive (8-platter x 3TB)
ST30TB00000 : 30TB CMR drive (10-platter x 3TB)

However, detailed specifications regarding the transfer rates of these drives are yet to be disclosed. I doubt that there will be any drastic improvements in transfer rates