Western Digital started last week the first shipment of its 10-terabyte hard disk drive (HDD). The manufacturer uses the HelioSeal Platform that hermetically seals helium gas in the drive for lesser friction.
The third-generation platform uses less power for every terabyte of capacity than previous drives that Western Digital had shipped. The hard drive is filled with helium and uses typical perpendicular recording (PMR) so 10 terabytes of capacity would fit on seven platters with an areal density of 816Gbits per square inch, reports Computerworld.
PCWorld notes that although it is not the first 10-terabyte HDD since HGST released its 10TB HDD over the summer, Western Digital's HDD is the only helium drive of that size to use PMR, the standard recording technology for hard drives in the last 10 years.
The Ultrastar He10 is a 25 percent boost in capacity over the 8TB Ultrastar He8 HDD. It uses 56 percent less watts per terabyte than the usual air-filled HDDs. When idle, it uses as low as 0.5 watts per terabyte and 6.8 watts when operating.
The SAS model, in comparison, utilizes 9.5 watts when operational. It is 56 percent less power than the previous generation. He10 has a 2.5 million mean-time-between failure ratings and a five-year warranty.
According to Western Digital, the Ultrastar He10 des not need additional software for the HDD to function in a server or array. In contrast, other high-capacity drives need shingled magnetic recording.
Buyers of the 7200rpm HDD have a choice between a 6Gbps SATA or 23 Gbps SAS interface and maximum sustained read/write data transfer rates of 249MB/second and 225MB/second, respectively.