WD's HDD tech promises flash-like performance and eases memory pressure

WD has detailed a pair of new hard drive technologies designed for AI workloads and described as delivering "flash-like" performance that could reduce pressure on NAND and SSD supply.

The company says combining HBDT (2-track) and a dual pivot can boost throughput from 300 MB/s to 1.2 GB/s, a fourfold increase, and that an eight-track HBDT design could have a theoretical maximum near 4.8 GB/s.

WD emphasizes throughput per terabyte as the engineering goal, calling these drives suitable for AI training, object storage, data lakes and exabyte-scale video streaming, while noting the gains primarily apply to very large sequential transfers rather than small random-access performance.

WD did not provide availability details. If the drives reach relevant enterprise and AI deployments, they could reduce demand for SSDs and flash memory and relieve some pressure on PC SSD pricing.

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