Western Digital Offers 20 TB HDD with dual actuator, achieves double transfer speed (>580 MB/s)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/31/2023 10:15 AM | source: | 8 comment(s)

Western Digital unveiled its latest data center hard disk drive (HDD) named the "Ultrastar DC HS760." This 20TB model features dual actuator technology, which enables parallel processing of data.

Although the transfer speed specifications have yet to be released, it is expected to provide twice the sequential access speed compared to the previous single-actuator model, the Ultrastar DC HC560. The random access speed is also rumored to be 1.7 times faster. The Ultrastar DC HS760 features proprietary technologies such as OptiNAND, HelioSeal, and ePMR. OptiNAND is based on the iNAND embedded NAND flash, while HelioSeal fills the drive with helium, and ePMR increases the surface density of the platters.

The HDD has a SAS interface and uses a CMR recording method, with a rotation speed of 7,200 RPM, a 2.2TB platter capacity, a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 2.5 million hours, and a 5-year product warranty. Power consumption details have not been disclosed yet, but the drive is reported to have improved power efficiency by 37% compared to the previous model.

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rl66
Senior Member

Posts: 3601
Joined: 2007-05-31

#6098353 Posted on: 01/31/2023 01:25 PM

SAS, CMR and high capacity... let's combinate numerous HDD like this one with huge cache

reix2x
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Posts: 648
Joined: 2010-01-20

#6098357 Posted on: 01/31/2023 01:59 PM

would this be the last kicks of this tech?

wavetrex
Senior Member

Posts: 1765
Joined: 2008-07-16

#6098358 Posted on: 01/31/2023 02:00 PM

These are simply two drives in one case and using the same spindle motor, aka 2x10 TB drives combined.

The "1.7 times faster" is not exactly correct, each internal actuator/logic is seen as one individual SAS drive, but you can Raid0 them just like you can Raid0 any two drives and obtain faster speeds, but that depends wildly on the Raid configuration used.

Their purpose is to extract more efficient use of space out of a limited number of drives in a slim server or NAS, for example, when you can only put 4 drives you're out of luck with Raid 6 (You can do it, but you're basically wasting 50% of the storage space and terrible performance). However, with 4x of these you get 8 "drives" and you can do 6+2 and only use 25% of the space for parity, and much better speed overall.

kakiharaFRS
Senior Member

Posts: 958
Joined: 2015-11-21

#6098527 Posted on: 01/31/2023 08:52 PM

I wonder about the noise ?
my go to drives are the "WD" Ultrastar DC HC5xx
I write "WD" in quotes because those are really HGST drives which was Hitachi, western digital bought them but they are not made nor sound or age badly like the real WD the blue blacks greens reds
"HGST" have the lowest noise 10x better than the atrocious seagate ironwolf that sound like someone is machine grinding metal in there

will probably buy 1 to try then 3 more if they're any good

theoneofgod
Senior Member

Posts: 4662
Joined: 2014-01-17

#6098541 Posted on: 01/31/2023 09:39 PM

would this be the last kicks of this tech?

Hopefully not

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