HDD technology roadmap predicts 100TB HDDs by 2025

A new roadmap by the Advanced Storage Technology Consortium (ASTC), a forum for collaborative joint R&D efforts by industry heavyweights including HGT, Seagate and WD, reveals storage density is expected to increase tenfold by the year 2025. Right now perpendicular magnetic recording enables areal densities of under 1Tb/in² but new recording methods are expected to increase storage density to a whopping 10Tb/in² by 2025, paving the way for HDDs with a capacity of 100TB.

Right now, we're in perpendicular territory, with areal densities under 1Tb/in². Shingled magnetic recording has already appeared in datacenter drives optimized for cold storage. Along with two-dimensional recording, a similar and potentially complementary approach, shingled tech looks poised to drive density scaling until at least 2017. That's when heat-assisted hotness is slated to take over, the crystal ball says.

If the ASTC's projections are accurate, heat-assisted and bit-patterned recording will combine around 2021, pushing areal densities up to 10Tb/in² by 2025. In a four-platter consumer unit like Seagate's Desktop HDD.15 4TB, which packs only 625Gb/in², that density would theoretically fuel 64TB of storage. Well over 100TB would be possible with a seven-platter monster like HGST's enterprise-oriented Ultrastar He8.

Source: The Tech Report