The American company Western Digital has presented two new hard drives – Ultrastar DC HC560 and WD Gold. Both HDDs have a capacity of 20 TB and are made using the proprietary OptiNAND technology, which implies the integration of an iNAND flash drive into a traditional HDD design.
The OptiNAND architecture is used in HDDs using Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording, which significantly increases storage density and hard disk performance. Both models also feature HelioSeal technology to reduce air resistance on rotating fins and feature a three-stage actuator (TSA).
Western Digital launches 20 TB OptiNAND HDDs
Thanks to the combination of OptiNAND with the listed technologies, Western Digital was able to place nine 2.2 TB platters in the new products – thus, the total capacity of each HDD was 20 TB. Ultrastar DC HC560 and WD Gold ship in a standard 3.5-inch SATA-3 form factor.
Ultrastar DC HC560 is designed for cloud storage and can be used in small business servers, security systems and NAS devices. As for WD Gold, it is aimed at enterprise customers and data centers, as it can operate in complex storage environments and can handle workloads up to 550 TB per year.
The 20 terabyte WD Gold model costs $ 680. How much the Ultrastar DC HC560 will cost to buyers is still unknown. Its predecessor, the 18TB Ultrastar DC HC550, is currently available for around $ 400.