HGST Inc., a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., today launched its first helium-filled hard disk drive, the 6 TB Ultrastar He6.
The new drives consist of disk platters sealed inside a hermetic chamber filled with heliuminstead of air. The breakthrough storage technology allows manufacturers to increase capacity by stacking more disk platters inside a 3.5-inch form factor while significantly reducing power consumption.
The HGST Ultrastar He6 helium drive contains seven disk platters in a 1 inch-high drive. Current standard air-filled disk drives contain five platters and a maximum of 4 TB. Helium is one-seventh the density of air, so there is less turbulence caused by disk and heads that move to read and write data. HGST claims helium drives will reduce power consumption on average by 23%.
