Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) (TOKYO: 4004) has started shipment of newly developed 3.5-inch hard disk media (HD media) to be used in 26 terabyte (TB) hard disk drive (HDD), which has the largest storage capacity the HDD industry has ever produced(1).

The new HD media support energy-assisted magnetic recording(2) and shingled magnetic recording(3)(SMR). This time, by introducing Showa Denko Group's latest magnetic layer design and technology to produce fine crystals of magnetic substance on the surface of aluminum platter, we successfully developed HD media which have storage capacity of 2.6TB per platter, the largest one in the industry. Thus, the new HD media have pioneered the age of HD media having recording density of 1TB/in2 or higher, and we successfully combined technology to produce fine crystals of magnetic substance with technology to improve rewrite-cycle endurance on the surface of HD media, while maintaining compatibility with shingled magnetic recording (SMR). We will accelerate development of new HD media further, and aim to realize near-line HDD having storage capacity of more than 30TB by the end of 2023.

Due to the spread of cloud-computing service and increase in video content, data centers need HDDs with larger storage capacity. In the field of HD media, which are key part of HDDs and affect their storage capacities, the Showa Denko Group has been putting topflight products in the world onto the market before others. As the largest independent HD media supplier, the Showa Denko Group will continue contributing to the increases in storage capacities of HDDs in accordance with its motto of "Best in Class," thereby supporting expansion of data economy.

*1: As of May 9, 2022
*2: Energy-assisted magnetic recording is a technology to record data on the surface of HD media with density higher than those achieved through conventional recording technologies, by pouring energy into magnetic substances which have high coercivity and assisting reversal of magnetization.
*3: Shingled magnetic recording is a technology to record data on the surface of HD media with high density by piling up a part of magnetic layers one another like singles.