Probably little point to do so. The software that can support 4k sectors can simply write 4k at a time and have basically the same effect as if the sector size actually were 4k, while the software that hasn't been updated to support it can still work, and on the hard drive side there's probably just a few lines of extra code to virtualize 512 byte sectors.
I don't know about HDD, but on SSD the minimum programmable page size is already 16kbytes per plane, while a superpage which is multiple planes+dies in parallel can be 16 times that or even bigger for higher throughput. Which will become kind of dumb if every 100byte text files take up 16kbytes minimum.
Point is, if the hardware still has to eventually use virtual sectors regardless of the industry standard, why not stick to a current standard that is also more space efficient.
Pretty much every single drive today has 4K native sectors with 512B emulation for compatibility. It has been this way for many years already. The article even mentions that this drive has PWC to deal with 512b emulation.
Windows/Linux/MacOS all detect and use native 4K sectors (no emulation needed). It matches the CPU page size, so it simplifies things a bit.
550 TB annualised is 1.5TB per day. At max transfer that’s almost 2 hours at full speed which they are unlikely to see after the initial filling up. I’d guess Toshiba knows very well the usage patterns for drives like these and that they are unlikely to see 1.5TB transfer every day for a whole year.
Lol, what kind of environment are you in where putting more than 1.5TB of fresh new data every day on a single drive is a real scenario? Where, 13 days later, you're also deleting 1.5TB every day from one drive?
Be sure not to confuse my question with, "Adding a fresh 1.5TB of data per day".
The difference is dealing with 1.5TB fresh data per day vs 1.5TB of fresh data per day on a single drive.
If you're ever in a scenario where you're putting 1.5TB of data per day on any single drive within the next 5 years, you probably need to revisit your infrastructure planning because there are major gaping flaws in it.
These are WORM-style enterprise drives that will likely find themselves in 'cold-storage' scenarios at data centers. Even in the event they are in intense workload applications, software will load balance writes among multiple arrays in a SAN container according to the defined design profile of the hardware. 1.5m MTBF and ~.1 DWPD seems pretty average for enterprise SATA-class drives.
Wake me when you put out one most can afford for desktops :) IE, 8TB is $280 vs. an external seagate from costco for $109-119 on sale. I can shuck that and still have the case/cable/psu.
I might give $130-140 for that feature (and 5yr warranty etc, bare drive that is, retail box at costco etc), but 280? nah. And yeah, sell it at costco, because I don't buy drives shipped these days (too many dead newegg ones), well the spinning kind I mean ;)
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23 Comments
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edzieba - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
I'll wait for the Magnetic (flux) Control - Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording technology drives!boeush - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
Impossible: can't touch them...The Von Matrices - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
Why has the industry not just moved to native 4K sectors already?Yojimbo - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
I don't know, but perhaps there's a lot of software out there that would break.Dolda2000 - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
Probably little point to do so. The software that can support 4k sectors can simply write 4k at a time and have basically the same effect as if the sector size actually were 4k, while the software that hasn't been updated to support it can still work, and on the hard drive side there's probably just a few lines of extra code to virtualize 512 byte sectors.wwenze - Sunday, February 21, 2021 - link
I don't know about HDD, but on SSD the minimum programmable page size is already 16kbytes per plane, while a superpage which is multiple planes+dies in parallel can be 16 times that or even bigger for higher throughput. Which will become kind of dumb if every 100byte text files take up 16kbytes minimum.Point is, if the hardware still has to eventually use virtual sectors regardless of the industry standard, why not stick to a current standard that is also more space efficient.
zybex - Thursday, February 25, 2021 - link
Pretty much every single drive today has 4K native sectors with 512B emulation for compatibility. It has been this way for many years already. The article even mentions that this drive has PWC to deal with 512b emulation.Windows/Linux/MacOS all detect and use native 4K sectors (no emulation needed). It matches the CPU page size, so it simplifies things a bit.
Operandi - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
I bet these will perform a lot better than the previous generation that were filled with Skippy extra crunchy PB.ZoZo - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
Why can't we have active noise specification?I'm guessing these have no restraint in terms of noise, and must be in the 36-ish dB.
brontes - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
0.08 dwpd, hard pass.Tomatotech - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
550 TB annualised is 1.5TB per day. At max transfer that’s almost 2 hours at full speed which they are unlikely to see after the initial filling up. I’d guess Toshiba knows very well the usage patterns for drives like these and that they are unlikely to see 1.5TB transfer every day for a whole year.Danvelopment - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
Lol, what kind of environment are you in where putting more than 1.5TB of fresh new data every day on a single drive is a real scenario? Where, 13 days later, you're also deleting 1.5TB every day from one drive?Be sure not to confuse my question with, "Adding a fresh 1.5TB of data per day".
The difference is dealing with 1.5TB fresh data per day vs 1.5TB of fresh data per day on a single drive.
If you're ever in a scenario where you're putting 1.5TB of data per day on any single drive within the next 5 years, you probably need to revisit your infrastructure planning because there are major gaping flaws in it.
Wereweeb - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
I think this is making fun of people who complain about QLC endurance.Spunjji - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
I hope so, but Poe's Law hits hard!Samus - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
These are WORM-style enterprise drives that will likely find themselves in 'cold-storage' scenarios at data centers. Even in the event they are in intense workload applications, software will load balance writes among multiple arrays in a SAN container according to the defined design profile of the hardware. 1.5m MTBF and ~.1 DWPD seems pretty average for enterprise SATA-class drives.Tomatotech - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
18TB capacity. 9 platters, 18 sides. 2 TB per platter, 1 TB per side. Areal density of “about 1.5TB/inch^2”.That means each platter side has about 0.66 square inches of usable space. Seems very low for a 3.5 inch diameter platter, or am I missing something?
If my calculations are right, that means the total usable area is a ring on the platter only around 6mm wide.
popopow - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
Tb != TBback2future - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
theoretical accessible platter area ~15"², 11"² * 9 ~18TBTomatotech - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
Oops brain fart. I’ll quietly hand in my geek card and go out the back door. Thanks for pointing out my mistake.back2future - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
Maybe reading this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterned_media#Comp... shows that pointing to areal density was very worth thinking more deeply about ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areal_density_(compu... ). So Your estimation is pretty much within possible areal densities (BPM?) or maybe what shingled write patterns (WD only?, SMR ~10Tb/"² ) can store on hdds. HAMR (MAMR?) plans on ~80TB for 3.5" ( https://www.anandtech.com/show/15484/the-road-to-8... ).stephenbrooks - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
Tb/in^2 not TB/in^2Fujikoma - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
B (byte) = represents 8 bitsb (bit) = represents 1 bit
TheJian - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
Wake me when you put out one most can afford for desktops :) IE, 8TB is $280 vs. an external seagate from costco for $109-119 on sale. I can shuck that and still have the case/cable/psu.I might give $130-140 for that feature (and 5yr warranty etc, bare drive that is, retail box at costco etc), but 280? nah. And yeah, sell it at costco, because I don't buy drives shipped these days (too many dead newegg ones), well the spinning kind I mean ;)