You've Heard of High Bandwidth Memory, Now Get Ready For High Bandwidth Hard Drives

Western Digital is introducing a couple of new technologies, dubbed "High Bandwidth Drive" and "Dual Pivot", that will significantly boost the performance of hard drives. According to Western Digital, the company expects up to a 4x combined total boost to sequential I/O, but even higher increases are possible further out into the future.

High Bandwidth Drive Technology "enables simultaneous reading and writing from multiple heads on multiple tracks" and Dual Pivot Technology "adds a second set of independently operating actuators on a separate pivot and will deliver up to 2x sequential I/O gain within a 3.5-inch drive."

In the long-term, Western Digital expects HB Drive Technology to "scale up to 8x" bandwidth, and drives employing both High Bandwidth Drive Technology and Dual Pivot Technology are expected to become available in 2028. High Bandwidth-only Drives are already available to some customers.

In its press release, Western Digital posits ...