Ahead-looking: Regardless of client PCs and sport consoles transitioning to quicker stable state drives (SSD), exhausting disc drives (HDD) proceed providing ever extra space for chilly storage at decrease costs. One firm says it may take a big leap ahead for optical disc expertise.
Folio Photonics introduced a brand new technique for optical disc storage this week that might make exhausting drives larger and cheaper than ever. Utilizing new supplies and manufacturing strategies, the corporate says it may provide storage at $5 per terabyte, and ultimately $1 per terabyte. The perfect exhausting disc drives are at present 5 occasions costlier at round $25 per terabyte.
The brand new optical discs function dynamic multi-layer write/learn capabilities, which beforehand hadn’t been cost-effective on the enterprise scale. Folio achieved this by patented polymer extrusion, film-based disc building processes, custom-made optical pickup models, an simply scalable polymer co-extrusion course of, and “next-generation supplies.”
The place archival discs these days provide as much as three optical layers per aspect per disc, Folio’s obtain 16 movie layers. The corporate plans to proceed growing that quantity.
Folio additionally claims that its discs are extra energy-efficient than conventional HDDs, with its implementation hopefully reducing the digital storage business’s carbon footprint. Moreover, the brand new exhausting drives are extra immune to electromagnetic pulses.
The corporate plans to begin providing its new exhausting drives in 2024, beginning with 10-disc models carrying 1TB per disc, translating to 10TB HDDs for round $50. Presently, that a lot cash would possibly get you a 2TB HDD. Folio hopes to ultimately provide larger drives.
If Folio’s expertise takes off, it might revolutionize the continuing competitors in HDDs over two dozen terabytes. Producers like Western Digital and Seagate are racing to create 30TB drives by the center of this decade and attain 100TB by 2030. These firms and Toshiba are pushing the boundaries of HDD storage and efficiency with applied sciences like HAMR, microwave help, and iNAND reminiscence.
Seagate launched a 20TB HDD in 2020, and WD unveiled a 26TB drive earlier this yr. The current advances in multi-layer expertise might considerably speed up the storage race.