HGST, formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, and now a subsidiary of Western Digital, has announced a major hard drive breakthrough – helium-filled hard drives that will bring new benefits to customers and the market alike.
Up until now hard drives were filled with air but helium brings a number of improvements. For one thing helium-filled hard drives require 23 per cent less power when compared to the classic air-filled hard drive. Also hard drive makers can now add two more platters, which will increase hard drive capacities to 6 TB and up. Finally helium-filled hard drives run 4 degrees Celsius cooler.
The new generation of hard drives is expected to serve cloud storage companies best allowing them to reduce cooling and electricity costs. There’s a downside though – such hard drives are expected to be somewhat more expensive compared to regular hard drives but once the technology gets further improved and accepted helium-filled hard drives are expected to take over regular air-filled drives.
The first helium-filled hard drives are expected on the market next year.
Source: Zdnet