Seagate Releases 6TB Hard Drive Sans Helium 147
Lucas123 (935744) writes "Seagate has released what it said is the industry's fastest hard drive with up to a 6TB capacity, matching one released by WD last year. WD's 6TB Ultrastar He6 was hermetically sealed with helium inside, something the company said was critical to reducing friction for additional platters, while also increasing power savings and reliability. Seagate, however, said it doesn't yet need to rely on Helium to achieve the 50% increase in capacity over its last 4TB drive. The company used the same perpendicular magnetic recording technology that it has on previous models, but it was able to increase areal density from 831 bits per square inch to 1,000. The new drive also comes in 2TB, 4TB and 5TB capacities and with either 12Gbps SAS or 6Gbps SATA connectivity. The six-platter, enterprise-class drive is rated to sustain about 550TB of writes per year — 10X that of a typical desktop drive."
Calculations (Score:5, Interesting)
At 1000 bits per square inch, to get 6TB you need about a third the size of Manhattan.
According to Wolfram Alpha at least:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/in... [wolframalpha.com]
Re:Why not? (Score:5, Interesting)
.......
Designing a hermetic container that lasts for years is non-trivial, particularly one to hold Helium, which has very, very small atoms that can go through the interstices in the metal. .....
This is important.....
I have seen thick wall steel pipe with blisters inside the metal.
The pipe contained high pressure hydrogen at high temperatures and
the hydrogen would react with the carbon in the steel and grow bubbles
a little like Swiss cheese.
The diffusion dimension of H2 and He is also interesting.
Re:obsolete (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmm Let me think about this
Intel Enterprise grade SSD 800gb - I can find them for about $1800
HGST Ultrastar - Enterprise grade with Helium - 6tb - $865.
I currently have a 21tb Nas machine in this office. I don't need speed I need capacity. The cost differential is MASSIVE. So yes people buy spinning platters all the time.