Seagate launches Mozaic 3+ hard drive platform with HAMR

Bob Yang, VP of APAC Sales, Seagate, recently presented on the Mozaic 3+. Mozaic is a composite of the most complex nanoscale recording technologies and material science breakthroughs on the planet.

According to IDC, between 2022 and 2026, the global datasphere will increase by >2x. Today, the enterprise stores the vast majority of the world’s data. About~70% data is stored in the cloud. We will be moving to decentralization, and use of edge AI by 2030.

Building, operating, andexpanding data centers are among our customers' greatest challenges and opportunities. We have an explosive data creation vs. resource scarcity. The explosive data creation involves faster AI productization, new revenue opportunities, and richer customer insights. This is leading to resource scarcity in space, electricity, and budget. Enterprises must quickly increase their storage capacity at an ever-decreasing per-TB cost and resource impact.

In the age of AI, data is more valuable than ever. The challenge for winning companies is by efficiently scaling storage infrastructure, while optimizing for TCO, and sustainability goals.

We have a question before us: Why does areal density matter today? There are two key ways to boost hard drive capacity. You can either add more disks, or add areal density.

Increasing the areal density means the same or lower number of platters, heads, and electronics, same or lower acquisition cost, power consumption, and embodied carbon. The most meaningful measurement of technology progression is the areal density innovation—not merely unit capacity. There has been 2×capacity gain per disk in under four years.

Mozaic 3+ difference
Seagate has launched the Mozaic 3+. with areal density that delivers on scale, TCO, and sustainability. Mozaic 3+ is a hard drive platform that incorporates Seagate's unique implementation of HAMR to deliver mass-capacity storage at unprecedented areal densities of 3TB per disk and beyond.

Mozaic 3+ areal density benefits include ~2X storage capacity in the same data center footprint, 40% lower power consumption per TB, and 55% reduction in embodied carbon per TB.

The world’s largest data centers choose hard drives to store 90% of their exabytes. The impact of areal density at scale is profound. We are upgrading a fleet of 16TB with 30TB drives that delivers ~2x the data center capacity in the same floor space.

A typical data center upgrade leads tp 40% Watt/TB power savings moving from 16TB to 30TB. It is typically 16TB, 9 platters, AD 1.78TB/disk, saving 0.59 Watts/TB. With Mozaic 3+, you get 30TB, 10 platters, AD of 3.0TB/disk, saving 0.35 Watts/TB.

Mozaic 3+ platform includes several elements. It has 12nm integrated controller, magnetic core, superlattice platinum alloy media, plasmonic writer, gen 7 spintronic reader, quantum antenna, photonic tunnel, and nanophotonic laser.

To combat magnetic instability, we designed a superlattice structure to enable high-fidelity data inscription. Plasmonic writer shows how we use precision-engineered laser to enable HAMR in a fraction of a second. In Gen 7 spintronic reader, we built the industry's smallest, most sensitive magnetic field sensor to facilitate higher data densities than ever before. The 12nm integrated controller 12nm integrated controller is a highly-tailored servo-processor chip as the operational heart of Mozaic-enabled hard drives. 

Mozaic 3+ drives are ramping volume. Exos 30TB+, the newly-announced capacity point drives, are shipping to hyperscale data centers. Qualifications were completed and moved into volume ramp by end March. Seagate is the world’s only hard drive manufacturer offering customers hard drives with the areal density capability of 3TB+ per platter.

The roadmap includes future advancements to 4TB+ and 5TB+ per platter. The Mozaic 3+ platform represents more than just HAMR technology. It comprises several industry-first innovations that together scale density. The areal density innovation effectively increases capacity within the same footprint, delivering scale, TCO, and sustainability benefits.