In the coming years, Western also wants to get involved in the Hamr market.
Even if an SSD (Solid State Drive) is likely to be in the vast majority of end customer computers these days, the development of classic magnetic hard panels has not stopped.
The decisive factor for this is the development of the »Hamr« technology. In the eyes of the IEEe (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering), this is the most important step for higher capacity.
Hard disk manufacturers Western Digital now gave as part of an “investor day” conference (via ComputerBase) known that the first Hamr hard drives should appear at the end of 2026.
- As a result, Hamr hard drives based on the conventional magnetic recording (CMR) with a capacity of around 36 TB, based on the conventional magnetic recording.
- Afterwards there is a change to »Ultrasmr«: overlapping data traces can increase the maximum capacity to up to 44 TB.
- The currently used EPMR should remain up to this period and achieve a maximum capacity of 36 TB.
At this point, Western Digital emphasizes that the Hamr hard drives that have been in principle have been launched for a long time are already being launched mightbut are not yet worth it economically.
The designated CEO Irving Tan assumes that “at least one million units per quarter” must be available to such a product in order to reindeer. Westerns have not reached this point digitally, especially since they have “a lot of work at Hamr in front of you”.
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Seagate made the race for the Hamr premiere
By the way, Hamr stands for “Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording” and has been located for more than two decades (via Heise) in development.
Simplified, a laser is used in the writing head of the hard drive to briefly heat the magnetic surface. This enables data to save in smaller areas and thus increase the storage density. In view of the sensitivity of the material, research also had to be researched for a long time to lead Hamr hard drives to mass suitability.
The first step in this direction was made by Seagate at the end of 2023, as the first Hamr hard drives were officially presented. The HDDs led under the “Exos” brand are in capacities Available from up to 36 TB. Incidentally, Seagate currently has to face an unpleasant allegation in this product group:
In the course of the investor discussion, Western Digital also gave an outlook on the future after Hamr: With »HDMR« (Heat Dot Magnetic Recording), however, it can only be expected in the coming decade, as can be seen in the coming decade. Hard disk capacities of over 100 TB are promised here.
