Mechanical hard drives are disappearing from the market in favor of SSDs. Not only for performance, but also for the dimensions, resistance and versatility they offer. Well, a company has announced a new type of disc for HDDs based on new materials that allow 1TB for just $5.
Currently optical discs seem to be relegated to very specific uses. Platforms like Steam for games or Netflix for streaming movies and series have made optical drives disappear. Laptops also do away with drive units, to reduce dimensions and increase power.
Hard drives based on optical technology
According to the Folio Photonics company, they have developed a new type of optical storage drive. This type of solution is intended to make hard drives have larger capacities and are much cheaper. To develop this type of unit, they used new materials and innovative manufacturing techniques.
They would have succeeded in making 1TB disk of capacity at the price of only 5 buckswhich can be as low as $1 per 1TB drive. Currently, HDD hard drives cost around $25 for 1TB.
These new discs have a system of dynamic read and write capabilities in several layers. Such a system is not new, but to date it would not have been cost effective to use them at the enterprise level. For this, Folio would have developed a new polymer extrusion system, as well as new construction methods film-based discs, custom optical drive units, a new, easily scalable polymer coextrusion process, and something they’ve dubbed “the next generation materials.”
From the company they indicate that they have gone from the three optical layers per side of the current discs, to the 16 layers on each side. Folio, further, said the number of layers can be increased.
The company also points out that its solution is much more energy efficient than conventional hard drives. The use of these new units will reduce the carbon footprint within the storage industry. Folito also points out that its hard drives are more resistant to electromagnetic pulses.
Will we see this solution on the market?
According to Folio, this new type of hard drives should hit the market in 2024. The first drives would contain a total of 10 drives with a capacity of 1TB per drive. At the effective level, we will have a 10 TB hard drive which would have an approximate price of 50 dollars. For this price, currently, we would have a 2TB hard drive.
This Folio technology could revolutionize the hard drive market, creating a new competitor. WD and Seagate are currently working towards 30TB and plan to hit 100TB by 2030, so Folio’s entry would be a blow. Toshiba, on the other hand, is pushing the boundaries of storage and performance with HAMR, as well as microwave support and iNAND memories.
The arrival of these new hard drives, if real, could deal an additional blow to conventional hard drives. Currently, the hard drive market is more than dead because of SSDs. What we don’t know is if these new optical hard drives could compete with SSDs in terms of performance.
