Western Digital will begin shipping 20TB OptiNAND HDDs in November
During the HDD Reimagine event held two months ago, Western Digital introduced the latest OptiNAND architecture. The special feature is the integrated iNAND embedded universal flash drive on the PCB. Western Digital said that the OptiNAND architecture is different from the hybrid architecture hard drive (SSHD) in the past and is an innovative architecture.
Western Digital stated that, unlike the previous SSHD, the flash memory in the OptiNAND architecture is not used as a cache. It does not store user data during normal operation but instead stores metadata for hard disk operations. Through a series of technology combinations, it can effectively increase the hard disk capacity, improve performance and reliability. Western Digital plans to introduce the OptiNAND architecture to all hard drives of 20TB or above, and eventually increase the capacity of the hard drives to 50TB.
According to a report from TomsHardware, Western Digital CEO David Goeckler said at a recent meeting that it will start mass shipments of 20TB hard drives using OptiNAND technology in November. Previously, the 20TB hard drive shown by Western Digital was based on the OptiNAND+ePMR solution, consisting of 9 discs, with a single disc capacity of 2.2TB, using a three-stage drive to improve the positioning accuracy of the head on the track, and using a 3D TLC NAND-equipped drive Flash drive, controlled by the customized main control chip.
These hard drives using OptiNAND technology will be suitable for cloud and data centers. Western Digital seems to have solved the related problems of this type of hard drive. Perhaps ordinary users will have the opportunity to use them in the future. After all, there are still many potential users in the consumer market. The biggest obstacle may be pricing. There is currently no information in this area.