I want to be your SledgeMAMR

Toshiba plans to use its proprietary recording technologies, FC-MAMR, MAS-MAMR, and disk stacking tech to lift nearline HDD capacities to 30TB from the end of its 2023 fiscal year. 

Toshiba's fiscal 2023 ends on 31 March 2024.

The details were revealed in a Toshiba chart presented to analysts over two investor relations days this week in Tokyo ahead of Toshiba reporting its Q3 results for fiscal 2021 (ended 31 December '21) on February 14.

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Analysts were shown Toshiba's HDD capacity roadmap, pictured above.

It is currently shipping 9-platter 18TB drives and, with chemical firm Showa Denko, which has an HDD division, has demonstrated 30+TB MAS-MAMR HDD technology.

The slide revealed a 20TB drive in fy2021 – the current financial year, which ends on 31 March 2022 – and Toshiba has not yet announced such a product. We would envisage a 10-platter construction at the current (ie: 18TB 9-platter HDD) 2TB/platter level.

A 26TB drive is envisaged some time in fiscal 2022, so any time from April onwards.

The Reg thinks a 10 x 3TB  or 11 x 2.7TB platter construction would be needed to reach the 30TB mark. Such a drive would place Toshiba ahead of both Seagate and Western Digital in capacity terms. 

Toshiba could intend to use shingling (overlapping wider write tracks to increase narrow read track density) but made no mention of this – we have asked the company for more details.

The chart also shows Toshiba introducing HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) drives in its fiscal 2025, alongside MAS MAMR - both at the 35TB level. They are scheduled to expand beyond the 40TB level in Toshiba's fiscal 2026.

Toshiba's fiscal year runs from April 1 of a calendar year to March 31 of the next calendar year. Therefore, from "Fy 2023" indicates from April 1, 2024, 14 months ahead, with Toshiba's Fy 2023 ending March 31, 2024. This is rather sooner than expected, to say the least. The chart in the slide above positions the 30TB drive midway between Toshiba's Fy 2023 and '24, so it could envisage shipping times later in the year.

We have asked Toshiba to clarify when its 30TB drive will appear. ®