Toshiba to launch 14TB PMR-based HDDs in 2018?

Some details about Toshiba's HDD roadmap have been made public. The company recently started shipping 9th generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) based HDDs, this is a 1TB model with a 2.5" form factor and a thickness of 7mm. This new generation enables 2.5" platters with a capacity of 1TB and 3.5" platters with a capacity of 1.8TB. It will allow Toshiba to launch 14TB HDDs in 2018.

According to SDK, 9th generation PMR media for 3.5” hard drives will have capacity between 1.5 and 1.8 TB. Typically, platters of the same generation produced by SDK, Seagate, and Western Digital have similar areal density with some minor differences. Therefore, we can expect the 9th gen PMR technology from the aforementioned HDD makers to feature similar capacities. Showa Denko plans to start mass production of its 9th gen PMR 3.5” media in early 2018, but, neither Seagate nor Western Digital (who produce their leading-edge platters in-house) have announced their timeline for similar discs. Typically, production schedules for advanced media also tend to be very similar for various makers, but we do not have any official data in hand right now.

Full details at AnandTech.