Seagate to make HDDs faster with Multi Actuator technology

Posted on Monday, December 18 2017 @ 18:07 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Seagate details its new Multi Actuator technology, which promises to double the performance of its future HDDs. At the moment, all HDDs feature a single actuator, this means all the read-write heads move together in synchronous motion over all the disk platters.

In the near future, Seagate plans to equip HDDs with two actuators. Each actuator will control half of the disk's arms, a feat that should double the performance while maintaining the same storage capacity.
In its first generation, Seagate’s Multi Actuator technology will equip hard drives with dual actuators (two actuators). With two actuators operating on a single pivot point, each actuator will control half of the drive’s arms. Half the drive’s recording heads will operate together as a unit, while the other half will operate independently as a separate unit. This enables a hard drive to double its performance while maintaining the same capacity as that of a single actuator drive.

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Seagate’s new Multi Actuation technology is a way to put the performance of parallelism within a single hard drive unit. The host computer can treat a single Dual Actuator drive as if it were two separate drives. This means the host computer can ask a single high-capacity drive to retrieve two different data requests simultaneously — delivering data up to twice as fast compared with a single-actuator drive.
Further details about how this tech works can be read at the Seagate blog.

Seagate Multi Actuator technology


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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