Seagate Western Digital Hitachi alliance

In the face of fierce SSD solid-state drives, the three major manufacturers in the field of HDD mechanical hard drives have now come together. This week, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital Corporation jointly announced the establishment of a technology alliance to jointly develop the next-generation HDD hard disk technology. It is the directional debate about the next leap in mechanical hard disk technology.

The three major manufacturers stated that they have injected millions of dollars into this newly formed technology alliance organization and plan to have all hard disk and accessory manufacturers, including semiconductor manufacturers, join the alliance by the end of this year. The organization is currently tentatively named. For the "Storage Technology Alliance" (Storage Technology Alliance), managed by the hard disk industry organization IDEMA.

IDEMA Chairman Mark Geenen said that he will fly to Asia next week, drawing in Samsung and Toshiba to join, spare parts maker Fuji Electric, LSI, Marvell, TDK, Texas Instruments, and equipment makers such as Veeco Instruments Inc., Xyratex International, etc. Will also join.

The reason for the hard disk industry to hold a group is that the next-generation HDD hard disk technology needs to significantly increase the disk storage density, and its high R&D costs make it unbearable for any company. And in the implementation of new technologies, various vendors have been taking each route. With only a handful of companies remaining in the hard disk industry, it is urgent for them to unite their actions and unite their efforts to achieve a new generation of technology to meet the challenge from solid-state storage.

The technical differences mentioned above are most typical of Seagate and Hitachi. In terms of increasing storage density, Hitachi advocates the use of patterned media technology to achieve precise positioning on rotating disks, but this technology may require 12.5nm lithography support. Seagate is advocating the use of heat-assisted magnetic recording technology to increase the access efficiency by heating tiny areas of the disk in a very short time.

Both technologies claim to be able to increase the disk storage density to more than 1 Tb per square inch, and if combined, it is possible to achieve an ultra-high storage density of 50 Tbits per square inch. However, both technologies still require significant R&D investment. In order to assist implementation, the significance of the new organization lies in this. The organization will work together to develop a new generation of disk storage technology under a multi-vendor joint venture, and formulate a road map for future development to determine which technologies will be put into practical use first.