These, and others like them will never, ever be available to consumer archivers. Even the Toshiba mg06aca (midline with persistent cache) doesn't appear to be available anywhere.
I`m more interested in technology finding its way into cheaper drives which can actually be had. I would have never believed 10 TB to be a really tight fit just five years earlier, yet here we are.
The tech press needs to stop using "PMR" to refer to non-shingled drives. All modern hard drives use PMR, even the shingled ones. The industry uses "CMR" or "conventional magnetic recording" to refer to non-SMR drives. Even WD's press release for this drive uses CMR.
The opening sentence states: "On Wednesday, Western Digital introduced its highest capacity hard drive based on conventional magnetic recording to date." Clear as can be that this is not SMR.
It doesn't matter that the article says 'conventional'... that's not a clear term. Much like 'organic' for foods means nothing. Shingled technology is being sold in large enough quantities that it can be termed 'conventional'. Similar to TLC SSD's being sold at nearly the same price as MLC SSD's and yet you have to dig to find how many bits per cell because a lot of places don't put that information in the details of the product. Why pay a few dollars less for a drive that won't last as long.
Actually the article says "conventional magnetic recording" which is the acronym CMR. So you want the industry to come up with something besides CMR or conventional magnetic recording? I think a new technology term would be helpful. Just as a note, CMR is not related to an industry standard, just like the use of IDE or EIDE is not related to an industry standard.
I was responding to the comment by takeshi7 that states: "The tech press needs to stop using "PMR" to refer to non-shingled drives. The industry uses "CMR" or "conventional magnetic recording" to refer to non-SMR drives." I pointed out that the article does just that, it states that this product is conventional magnetic recording.
But the title of the article, which is even more important than the opening sentence uses PMR. All hard drives are PMR. It's so redundant. The title may as well say "Western Digital Launches Spinning Disk HDD"
Western Digital bought HGST from Hitachi in 2012 and continued to sell them as HGST drives for a few years. In 2015 they started integrating the brands more and I think have finally dropped the HGST brand on new products and started selling only under the WD brand
What you are seeing is the emergence of two brands, one is WD and the other is Western Digital - each with their own logo. This drive is Western Digital, not WD. Confused?
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19 Comments
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tuxRoller - Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - link
These, and others like them will never, ever be available to consumer archivers.Even the Toshiba mg06aca (midline with persistent cache) doesn't appear to be available anywhere.
Hurr Durr - Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - link
I`m more interested in technology finding its way into cheaper drives which can actually be had. I would have never believed 10 TB to be a really tight fit just five years earlier, yet here we are.DeepLake - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
You can buy 12TB WD Gold https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075L6FJH8?tag=anandtech...takeshi7 - Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - link
The tech press needs to stop using "PMR" to refer to non-shingled drives. All modern hard drives use PMR, even the shingled ones. The industry uses "CMR" or "conventional magnetic recording" to refer to non-SMR drives. Even WD's press release for this drive uses CMR.vFunct - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Indeed. I couldn't tell from this article if this was a shingled drive or not, had to confirm via the WD site.PMR means perpendicular magnetic recording, instead of old-school longitudinal magnetic recording.
AdditionalPylons - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Thanks! I was just going to post the same thing myself!hlm - Friday, April 20, 2018 - link
The opening sentence states: "On Wednesday, Western Digital introduced its highest capacity hard drive based on conventional magnetic recording to date." Clear as can be that this is not SMR.Fujikoma - Monday, April 23, 2018 - link
It doesn't matter that the article says 'conventional'... that's not a clear term. Much like 'organic' for foods means nothing. Shingled technology is being sold in large enough quantities that it can be termed 'conventional'. Similar to TLC SSD's being sold at nearly the same price as MLC SSD's and yet you have to dig to find how many bits per cell because a lot of places don't put that information in the details of the product. Why pay a few dollars less for a drive that won't last as long.hlm - Monday, April 23, 2018 - link
Actually the article says "conventional magnetic recording" which is the acronym CMR. So you want the industry to come up with something besides CMR or conventional magnetic recording? I think a new technology term would be helpful. Just as a note, CMR is not related to an industry standard, just like the use of IDE or EIDE is not related to an industry standard.I was responding to the comment by takeshi7 that states: "The tech press needs to stop using "PMR" to refer to non-shingled drives. The industry uses "CMR" or "conventional magnetic recording" to refer to non-SMR drives." I pointed out that the article does just that, it states that this product is conventional magnetic recording.
takeshi7 - Wednesday, April 25, 2018 - link
But the title of the article, which is even more important than the opening sentence uses PMR. All hard drives are PMR. It's so redundant. The title may as well say "Western Digital Launches Spinning Disk HDD"piroroadkill - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Isn't Ultrastar an HGST brand?I'd rather the HGST drives be HGST drives, I know it sounds petty, but I'd rather buy HGST drives than WD ones.
WithoutWeakness - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Western Digital bought HGST from Hitachi in 2012 and continued to sell them as HGST drives for a few years. In 2015 they started integrating the brands more and I think have finally dropped the HGST brand on new products and started selling only under the WD brandhlm - Monday, April 23, 2018 - link
What you are seeing is the emergence of two brands, one is WD and the other is Western Digital - each with their own logo. This drive is Western Digital, not WD. Confused?Samus - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
I love that WD didn't fuck up Hitachi. Seagate, take a note.mkaibear - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
14tb of eggs in one basket. Nice. ;)(Yes, yes, I know there are use cases and in fact I would have jumped on these in the job I did, uh, three jobs ago)
Longrunner - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Good point on IOPS/TB, that’s why vendors are working on Dual Actuator drives : https://blog.seagate.com/craftsman-ship/multi-actu...Kvaern1 - Thursday, April 19, 2018 - link
Whose idea was it to use bels, which pretty much no one knows what is, instead of decibels?ZeDestructor - Friday, April 20, 2018 - link
deci is just the SI prefix for 1/10 of whatever the main unit is.So in this here case, 2.0/3.6 bels (I don't generally see B used here, cause B = byte, and b = bit more often)= 20/36 dB (decibels)
melgross - Wednesday, April 25, 2018 - link
Bels is used in the medical field when talking about hearability.