Western Digital to revolutionise HDDs with “High-Bandwidth Drive” and “Dual Pivot” tech

Western Digital aims to revolutionise the HDD space with plans to boost bandwidth by 8x

While SSDs now dominate the consumer PC market, HDDs still have a place within the overall storage market. Mass storage requires a medium that can store large amounts of data, and while SSDs are fast, data density and pricing are not their strengths. Western Digital has officially unveiled two technologies that will push HDDs forward. When combined, Western Digital is targeting 8x bandwidth gains. That’s a HUGE performance boost.

Thanks to technologies such as Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), HDD storage densities are increasing. However, this capacity boost must be accompanied by performance gains to make these higher-density drives useful. IOPS-per-TB matters. After all, what’s the point in having a huge storage medium if accessing the data on it is too slow? Western Digital wants to make HDDs more competitive, and that requires bandwidth and capacity improvements.

(High Bandwidth Drive Technology doubles HDD bandwidth)

Two technologies, one goal

Using a new technology called “High Bandwidth Drive”, Western Digital aims to boost HDD bandwidth by up to 4x. Early prototypes have already achieved a 2x boost. This technology uses separate read and write heads on each platter surface to enable simultaneous read and write operations. Initially, this technique should allow Western Digital to deliver a 2x increase in bandwidth, with a roadmap to 8x improvements. This increases I/O performance without an increase in power draw.

What’s clever about Western Digital’s implementation of this technology is that it is achieved without any external changes to the HDD. As far as connected systems are concerned, this is a faster HDD. No software changes required.

Next, Western Digital has its “dual pivot” tech. This adds a separate pivot to enable more simultaneous reads and writes. In time, Western Digital hopes to bring together its “High Bandwidth Drive” and “dual pivot” technologies to enable further performance gains.

(Dual Pivots to double bandwidth)

The road to 2GB/s HDDs

Western Digital believes that it is on the road to HDDs that are eight times faster than today’s drives. That will deliver HDDs with speeds of 2 GB/s. That’s faster than what’s possible over the SATA interface, which means that these newer, faster HDDs will eventually require a change in HDD infrastructure.

Based on Western Digital’s roadmap, the future is bright for HDD technology. Faster drives that can deliver higher levels of bandwidth and IOPS. With a target of 2 GB/s speeds, future HDDs are aiming for SSD-level speeds. That’s awesome, especially given how much HDD densities are expected to explode over the next five years.

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