Japan's Showa Denko begins shipments of record density magnetic wafers to produce 26TB HDDs

Japan's Showa Denko, the largest independent manufacturer of magnetic wafers for hard drives, has begun shipping 3.5-inch hard drives with record capacity.
The new aluminum platters deliver an industry record areal density of more than 1TB/inch2, allowing for capacities as high as 2.6TB.
Western Digital now builds 26TB hard drives from these platters.image source: storageagereview.comTo manufacture the company's 3.5-inch 2.6TB magnetic platters, Showa Denko developed protective and magnetic coating technology using the smallest magnetic crystals.
At the same time, to achieve record-breaking recording densities, the magnetic wafers are supported by two technologies: energy assisted perpendicular recording (ePMR) and tiled overlapping track recording (SMR).
Without SMR technology, the plate capacity reaches 2.2 TB.
SMR technology reduces the speed of access to the media, but the gain in capacity compensates for this drawback.Apparently, on the basis of 2.6Tbytes of platters Showa Denko created hard drives Ultrastar DC HC670 UltraSMR by Western Digital.
Western Digital began distributing such drives a couple of weeks ago to select customers.
The beginning of mass shipments of Showa Denko platters from Western Digital and likely Seagate gives hope for relatively soon mass production of 3.5-inch 26TB hard drives.Showa Denko has also developed 3.5-inch platters with higher capacity - 3TB.
This is achieved by supporting MAS-MAMR technology.
This is also a recording technology with \"energy\" support, but only more complex - with the integration of miniature microwave emitters into the magnetic heads.
Apparently, this is the next step in increasing the capacity of 3.5-inch hard drives, which can be expected closer to the end of 2023 or later.