Enterprise-level Seagate Exos M HDD with 30TB capacity boasts revitalizing laser-powered HAMR recording technology, shaking up the hard drive market.

Seagate Unveils 30TB Exos M Hard Drive, Pioneering HAMR Technology

Seagate, a leading storage solutions provider, has made a significant stride in data storage technology with the launch of their new Exos M 30TB hard drive. The drive, based on Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, is designed for data-intensive workloads in cloud and enterprise environments.

Powered at 9.5W with a noise level of 34dB, the Exos M drive is a quiet and efficient powerhouse. Its controller/ASIC, manufactured in 12nm, manages the drive's functions and operation, comparable to an SSD controller.

The drive's PCB houses three Winbond ICs: a 4Gb (512MB) DDR3L volatile cache, a 1Gb (128MiB) SPI non-volatile SLC NAND flash, and a 32Mbit (4MiB) NOR flash for the controller.

Seagate's Multi-Tier Caching (MTC) technology, built on top of their refined HAMR implementation and the Mozaic 3+ platform, is used in the Exos M drive to improve drive performance. This memory hierarchy provides a boost in read and write speeds, making it ideal for high-performance workloads.

The SMOOTH Thor controller, a motor driver and power management IC, manufactured by STMicroelectronics, is also incorporated in the Exos M drive. This combination ensures efficient power management and reliable operation.

The 30TB drive boasts a sustained transfer rate of 275 MB/s and a cache of 512MB. It's the largest hard drive tested to date, surpassing its predecessors in the Exos line and offering a significant capacity increase over other drives in the market.

The Exos M drive comes with Seagate's tools for maintenance and preparation. SeaTools, accessible on both Windows and Linux, offers a graphical user interface (GUI) and a comprehensive command-line interface (CLI) guide. DiscWizard, a Windows application, is used for formatting, partitioning, and data transfer and backup.

The 30TB drive, priced at approximately $20 per TB, is more expensive than other drives like the Seagate BarraCuda, WD Red Pro, Seagate's SkyHawk AI, IronWolf Pro, and Exos X20. However, none of these drives reach this capacity. The drive comes with a 5-year warranty and a maximum workload rate limit of 550TB per year.

Seagate has also launched 30TB drives in their IronWolf Pro line, catering to network-attached storage (NAS) environments. This expansion in capacity and technology is a testament to Seagate's commitment to pushing the boundaries of data storage technology.

Enterprise-level Seagate Exos M HDD with 30TB capacity boasts revitalizing laser-powered HAMR recording technology, shaking up the hard drive market.