If it no longer has the favors of industrialists who prefer the SSDthe hard drive still has a few advantages to show.
Chance of the calendar, a few days after the publication of a study on the inexorable decline of the hard disk market, Western Digital announces the release of models with extraordinary capacities, 22 TB.
Omnipresence of ePMR
Last May, Western Digital marketed, as it had promised, a first 22 TB hard drive model with the Ultrastar DC H570 and the DC HC670 variant. These two versions are now supplemented by arrivals in its major ranges with, always, the use of ePMR technology.
Formerly known as EAMR, as in the explanatory video above, the technique still employs conventional magnetic recording and avoids the “overlapping” of tracks in certain orientations not necessarily to everyone’s taste. Western Digital drives also use helium and have three-stage actuators.
This set of techniques allow the brand to further improve the capacities of its hard drives and maintain a clear advantage over its long-standing competitor, Seagate.
Three variants for three uses
Western Digital’s 22 TB hard drives are therefore entering the main ranges of the American manufacturer’s catalog, with WD Gold, WD Red Pro and WD Purple Pro versions. Each time, we can count on a fairly similar mechanism with 10 platters of 2.2 TB each and a 7,200 rpm motor.
From left to right, the specifications of the WD Gold, WD Red Pro and WD Purple Pro © Western Digital
The memory cache is also the same on the three variants (512 MB), but some optimizations allow the Gold version to ensure significantly higher sustained speeds (291 MB/s, against 265 MB/s for the other two). For the rest of the specifications, we suggest you consult the tables above provided by Western Digital.
Finally, note that availability is announced for the next 3 or 4 weeks with pricing that mainly targets these models for the business world. The three versions are announced on the official website of the American at 599.99 dollars which should lead to 650-700 euros on our side of the Atlantic.
Source: Press release
8