Western Digital also sells HDDs equipped with energy-assisted magnetic recording technology to the general public

Western Digital announced a HDD equipped with an energy-assisted magnetic recording method that realizes higher density and larger capacity in HDD in September 2019, and has sample-shipped it. Now, it is available for cloud and enterprise. It has been announced that

Western Digital Leads Enterprise Large-Capacity HDD Technology with Broad Product Family of Data Center Solutions | Western Digital

Increasing the density and capacity of HDDs is a challenge for HDD manufacturers. There is 'energy assisted recording technology' as a solution, and WD and Toshiba Device & Storage are promoting microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), and Seagate is promoting thermally assisted magnetic recording (HAMR).

WD has developed 18TB and 20TB HDDs that achieve the industry's highest areal recording density by the MAMR method. Sample shipments for enterprise OEMs and hyperscale cloud customers were begun in 2019, with mass production planned for the first half of 2020.

Western Digital drives 18TB CMR and 20TB SMR HDDs in the first half of 2020 to drive the data center sector | Western Digital
https://www.westerndigital.com/ja-jp/company/newsroom/press-releases/2019/09-09-2019-western-digital-builds-on-data-center-leadership-to-deliver-18tb- cmr-and-20tb-smr-hdds

This announcement shows that WD's schedule is on track. The Ultrastar Data60 & Data102 JBOD and Serv60+8 Storage Server with Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDD (16TB & 18TB) will be offered with a 5-year product warranty, and the Ultrastar platform with Ultrastar DC HC650 20TB SMR HDD will be available in the next quarter. Will be done.