Seagate introduced the Exos X24 line of hard drives last Wednesday. This line of drives includes both conventional magnetic recording technology (CMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) models, with the CMR model going up to 24TB and the 28TB model being an SMR model. Both models offer the largest capacity in their respective technologies. While the Exos X24 may not seem that exciting, at the same time it is the basis for the new HAMR drives, which we wrote about back in July.
The Seagate Exos X24 3.5-inch hard drives are filled with helium and are available in capacities of 13 TB, 16 TB, 20 TB, 24 TB and 28 TB (SMR). The 24 TB model uses 10 drives of 2.4 TB. Only the 28 TB model uses SMR and is therefore suitable for data centers that can incorporate shingled recording technology into their system. The drives run at 7200 rpm and have a 256 MB cache. Their maximum sustained transfer rate is 285 MB/s, which is comparable to previous models. The Exos X24 offers 165/550 random read/write IOPS, which is also the same as previous models.
The models come with SATA 6 Gbps or dual-port SAS 12 Gbps connections. See the table below for specifications. The drives also support PowerBalance technology, which matches power consumption to the IOPS rate. PowerChoice allows the drive to save power when not in use for extended periods of time. These drives are intended primarily for the enterprise market, especially for data center use, and meet all requirements in that sector. They are expected to become available through regular channels in December.
An interesting fact is that this platform with 10 helium-filled drives also immediately forms the basis for the new heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) drives. Using this technology, disk capacity can be increased to 32 TB, production of which is expected to begin early next year.
