Sony Group sets down to mass-produce laser diodes that quadruple hard disk drive (HDD) capacity, developing substantial data storage sector advancements.
Sony Semiconductor Solutions will start diode manufacturing in May, partnering with US-based Seagate Technology, Nikkei Asia reported. The objective of this endeavor is to build 3.5-inch HDDs with 30 terabytes, twice as much as regular products.
Sony will spend 5 billion yen ($33 million) in Miyagi prefecture, Japan, and Thailand factories to support this innovative technology. These facilities will host new production lines tailored to accommodate the innovative laser diode technology.
(Photo: RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images)A man walks into the headquarters of the Sony Group Corporation in Tokyo on February 14, 2024.
The key to Sony's new laser diode technology lies in the hyper-precision of its diodes, allowing lasers to target a minute area of 1 millionth of a millimeter. This precision enables a 400-degree or higher laser to interact with the disk's surface storage area, facilitating the writing of more information on the same disk area and effectively doubling HDDs' data storage capability.
AI Driving Demand Surge for Data Storage
The surge in demand for data centers, driven by the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (AI), is reflected in Statista's projection that global data generation will reach 181 zettabytes by 2025-a 90% increase from 2022.
Sony's innovative HDD technology not only addresses this growing demand but also tackles challenges related to land and electricity requirements, enabling twice the data storage in the same space and reducing electricity needs by 40 percent.
The Sony announcement follows Seagate's milestone in data storage solutions in January with the introduction of the Mozaic 3+TM hard drive platform, featuring Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology.
The platform achieves unprecedented area densities of 3 TB+ per platter, with plans to reach 4 TB+ and 5 TB+ per platter in the future, per the firm's media release.
The Mozaic 3+ platform, powering Seagate's Exos product family, presents industry-leading capacities of 30TB and beyond.
This breakthrough allows customers to store more data in the same physical space, effectively doubling capacity within the same footprint when transitioning from a 16TB conventional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) drive to an Exos 30TB Mozaic 3+ drive.
Sony PlayStation 5 Already Entering "Later Stage" of Life Cycle
In another Sony development, the firm confirmed that its PlayStation 5 (PS5) gaming console is nearing its last phase owing to poor sales in a different update.
TechTimes previously reported that Sony lowered its March 2025 sales target to 21 million from 25 million after a holiday quarter in 2023 sold 8.2 million devices. Sony Senior Vice President Naomi Matsuoka expects PS5 sales to drop in the next fiscal year, highlighting the need to strike a compromise between profitability and sales.
In the three years since its November 2020 launch, the PS5 has sold 54.7 million units, entering "the latter stage of its life cycle." Sony struggled to maintain pace and released the PS5 Slim in October with improved specs.
