Re: fuzzy disks, Is Parallel Programming Hard, And, If So, What Can You Do About It?

On 5/27/2025 1:34 AM, Anton Ertl wrote:

Stephen Fuld <sfuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> writes:

On 5/26/2025 12:19 PM, John Levine wrote:

According to Stefan Monnier  <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>:

Stephen Fuld [2025-05-26 11:16:25] wrote:

https://www.seagate.com/innovation/multi-actuator-hard-drives/

[...]

I believe you about its current state, but I wonder
why it wasn't more successful.  It seems like a big improvement in
throughput for very little extra cost.

 It seems that the technology is still on offer, e.g.
 https://geizhals.eu/seagate-exos-x-2x18-18tb-st18000nm0272-a2883003.html
 As for the price (and ignoring offers that are not in stock, or where
the offers vary wildly vary):
 EUR Drive
427 Seagate Exos X - 2X18 18TB (2x9TB)
350 Exos X X18 18TB
440 2xToshiba N300 NAS Systems 10TB (total 20TB)
330 2xSeagate Exos E - 7E10 8TB (total 16TB)
385 10TB HDD + 8TB HDD (total 18TB)
 So you pay almost as much as for 2 10TB drives, but get only 2 9TB
drives in one enclosure.  The power consumption may be better for the
2X18 drive, though.

Thanks Anton.  So cost per GB is close, but the single drive is still more expensive. :-(  It should draw less power and require less cooling; one drive motor versus two, and except for the read channel, half the electronics.  Slightly worse performance, as only one host transfer simultaneously.
Overall, not a terrible deal, but not a great bargain.  I'll bet the vendor gets better margins on it.  Interesting!
--
  - Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)