14 DAY TRIAL // Hard disk manufacturer HGST introduces the world's first helium-filled hard disk drive. Showcased on November 4, the new data-storage device is now available for purchase, bringing a host of new technologies and performance charts to the table. This innovative design has numerous advantages over traditional disk drives.
For starters, the new drive has more than 50 percent greater storage capacity than similar disks, all while using 20 percent less power to run. The first version the company launched boasts a storage capacity of six terabytes, HGST announces in a statement.
The helium contained within the drive itself enables the device to operate about 30 percent quieter than similar-sized disks, and at temperatures up to 4 degrees Celsius lower. Compared to a standard, the new drive is 50 grams lighter, weighing just 640 grams (22.5 ounces).
The thing that separates the new product from any other on the market is the innovative and patented technology that allows HGST to hermetically-seal helium within the HDD, reducing friction, vibrations, and other mechanical issues.
These problems are responsible for significantly reducing the storage density of conventional hard disks, while increasing their overall power consumption. Though helium was first proposed as a solution to these issues back in the 1970s, no company was thus far able to create a working drive.
Undoubtedly, the main problem associated with using helium is that the gas tends to leak out of any enclosure. HGST managed to circumvent this issue with a proprietary technology, and is now manufacturing 6-terabyte disks guaranteed to last for 5 years.
At this moment, the company is not necessarily targeting end-users with its Ultrastar He6. The helium-filled disk is meant to alleviate storage issues experimented by banks, public institutions, research laboratories and data centers, whose IT budgets remain constant while storage needs grow.
Already, HGST announced partnerships with Hewlett-Packard, telecommunications giant Huawei, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), all of whom have expressed an interest in the new technology.
“HDD industry areal density growth is not keeping pace with the rate of storage capacity growth in enterprise data centers,” explains HGST's vice-president of research, John Rydning.
“HGST's proprietary, new, hermetically sealed, helium-filled HDD solution – the industry's first helium filled platform that simultaneously increases capacity while lowering power consumption and operating temperature – is intersecting the market at a time when IT managers are seeking out capacious and energy efficient new disk drives that will help to reduce the total cost of ownership of enterprise storage systems,” he concludes.