Seagate presents Mozaic 3+. This is a hard drive technology platform based on HAMR and several other innovations. Mozaic 3+ enables higher data density on hard drives.

Seagate will ship 30TB of hard drives to hyperscale cloud customers this quarter. The manufacturer had previously distributed samples. The 30TB drives are based on a new technology platform: Mozaic 3+. Mozaic 3+ allows hard drives to store more data on a single drive. Seagate can already make 3TB hard drives and expects to move up to 4TB and even beyond 5TB in the coming years.

HAMR

HAMR technology is central to the Mozaic 3+ platform. HAMR (Heat-assisted magnetic recording) uses a tiny laser to heat the hard drive surface. This increases density and allows Seagate to store more data in the same space. In addition, energy consumption per terabyte drops by 40 percent.

Seagate combines HAMR with several other innovations, such as a very advanced read head, a more precise platinum alloy superlattice structure. The drives also feature a new (12nm) controller.

Mozaic 3+ and HAMR will enable higher drive capacities in the same 3.5-inch form factor in the future. This is important because it allows data centers to increase their capacity while keeping their physical footprint the same and potentially even reducing energy consumption.