As we witness Apple's generational updates of the M series of chips, the highly anticipated SKU of the 3rd generation of Apple M series yet-to-be-announced top-of-the-line M3 Ultra chip is growing speculations from industry insiders. The latest round of reports suggests that the M3 Ultra might step away from its predecessor's design, potentially adopting a monolithic architecture without the UltraFusion interconnect technology. In the past, Apple has relied on a dual-chip design for its Ultra variants, using the UltraFusion interconnect to combine two M series Max chips. For example, the second generation M Ultra chip, M2 Ultra, boasts 134 billion transistors across two 510 mm² chips. However, die-shots of the M3 Max have sparked discussions about the absence of dedicated chip space for the UltraFusion interconnect.

While the absence of visible interconnect space on early die-shots is not conclusive evidence, as seen with the M1 Max not having visible UltraFusion interconnect and still being a part of M1 Ultra with UltraFusion, industry has led the speculation that the M3 Ultra may indeed feature a monolithic design. Considering that the M3 Max has 92 billion transistors and is estimated to have a die size between 600 and 700 mm², going Ultra with these chips may be pushing the manufacturing limit. Considering the maximum die size limit of 848 mm² for the TSMC N3B process used by Apple, there may not be sufficient space for a dual-chip M3 Ultra design. The potential shift to a monolithic design for the M3 Ultra raises questions about how Apple will scale the chip's performance without the UltraFusion interconnect. Competing solutions, such as NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU, use a high-bandwidth C2C interface to connect two 104 billion transistor chips, achieving a bandwidth of 10 TB/s. In comparison, the M2 Ultra's UltraFusion interconnect provided a bandwidth of 2.5 TB/s.

While Helium-filled HDDs continue to push the capacity envelope, air-based solutions, too, are seeing great advancements to help fulfill the world's hunger for data and growing performance demands. Our R&D teams are pushing the boundaries of what's possible for HDDs while continuing to drive lower $/TB. Today Western Digital is excited to add the 10 TB Ultrastar DC HC330 HDD to its DC HC300 family.

The new Ultrastar DC HC330 is based on our proven and mature HC300 family of products, and if you have already qualified other capacity points in this family, you now have a very simple migration path, and best possible TCO within the HC300 family with the 10 TB HDD product. Furthermore, at 10 TB, the Ultrastar DC HC330 provides you with the same capacity as our previous Helium-based 10 TB, but uses fewer disks and heads to deliver even better value.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation today announced the addition of "MN06ACA10T," a 10-terabyte (TB) hard disk drive (HDD) in a 3.5-inch form factor with a SATA interface. The new drive is designed for home NAS and small office/home office (SOHO) NAS applications. Sample shipments start today.

"MN06ACA10T" air-based HDD delivers 10 TB capacity by deploying an improved magnetic recording head and disk magnetic layer. The 10 TB capacity is 25% higher than that of the previous model in the series, the 8 TB MN05ACA800, and buffer size is doubled to 256 MiB.

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., a committed technology leader, announces the MD06ACA-V, the latest addition to its SV Series line-up of 3.5-inch hard drives for surveillance applications. The new models are available in capacities up to 10 TB with a higher transfer rate compared to previous MD04ABA-V models, helping to enable support for up to 64 camera streams. Higher capacity and transfer rates enable support for higher resolution camera streams to meet changing compliance mandates for surveillance data.

The MD06ACA-V Series is designed for 24/7 streaming operation scenarios, and is typically used for surveillance digital video recorders (SDVR), surveillance network video recorders (SNVR) and Hybrid SDVR. The MD06ACA-V Series features 7,200 rpm access performance, and the new 10 TB model delivers a 58 percent increase in maximum sustained transfer rate when compared to Toshiba's prior MD04ABA-V series, pushing it to 237 MiB/s. Available in 6 TB, 8 TB and 10 TB capacities, the new models provide a SATA 6 Gbit/s interface, with a 256 MiB dynamic buffer. Additionally, the MD06ACA-V models support Advanced Format (512e) technology for compatibility with legacy applications and operating environments.

Western Digital has introduced new models to its RED and RED PRO line-up of HDDs. The RED series is oriented more towards a NAS environment, though nothing is really stopping you from putting on of these into your system. These use the same HelioSeal technology that WD uses on their enterprise-class drives, which allows the company to increase the capacity of the RED and RED PRO drives by 25%.

The normal RED drive is built for systems with up to 8 drive bays, while the RED PRO is built for systems with up to 16 drive bays. The RED series is more silent, with an internal spindle speed of 5400RPM, while the RED PRO series comes with a 7200RPM speed. This means the PRO series is louder while operating, but also that is has better performance and faster data access times.

Western Digital Corporation, a storage industry leader, today announced the availability of the WD Purple 10 TB HDD, the newest member of its high-capacity hard drive line for surveillance applications. According the IHS Markit, anticipated growth of 4K-compliant and high-resolution network cameras over the next few years is driving higher demand for surveillance-class storage to support systems featuring these technologies. With increased capacity and proven leading-edge technology, the WD Purple 10 TB HDD is optimized for 24x7 video surveillance systems and up to 64 high-definition (HD) cameras in home and small business security environments.

"Advanced imaging technology advancements are expanding the value that video surveillance provides for applications ranging from retail and public safety monitoring to smart-city infrastructure, all of which are driving new storage needs," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing. "Our new 10 TB drive inherits the high performance, reliability and endurance qualities of our WD Purple family, with maximum capacity to offer VARs, integrators and consumers a 4K-ready solution for current and next-generation surveillance systems."

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced the launch of the AS6212RD 12-bay rackmount NAS, the newest addition to their series of Intel Braswell based NAS devices. The AS6212RD is equipped with powerful core specifications that are ready to meet the requirements of demanding enterprise environments while providing excellent performance and smooth multitasking. The 4 built-in USB ports provide for agile applications, allowing businesses to maximize the use of existing equipment and resources.

Worth mentioning is that the AS6212RD features 12 disk bays and supports the highest capacity hard disks on the market (10 TB) allowing for the creation of truly large storage spaces. Businesses that require high capacity storage can maximize the use of disk bays by utilizing ASUSTOR's MyArchive cold backup technology to effectively achieve unlimited storage. MyArchive disks can be used to archive data, freeing up storage space on existing storage volumes. Users can plug in MyArchive disks back into the NAS any time that they need to access the archived data. Additionally, for users who want to add storage capacity without having to expand their RAID storage volumes, MyArchive technology can be used, providing a low cost option to meet increasing storage demands.

Western Digital Corporation, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced a new, high-capacity configuration of up to 10TB for its award-winning WD Gold datacenter hard drives. Designed for modern enterprise storage systems, WD Gold 10 TB datacenter hard drives feature HelioSeal helium-technology for high capacity, power efficient storage for datacenter environments.

WD Gold datacenter hard drives are designed for a broad range of applications - including small- to medium-scale enterprise servers and storage, and rack-mount datacenter servers and storage enclosures. WD Gold 10 TB datacenter hard drives feature an optimized design over the existing WD Gold 8 TB drives that helps reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of servers and storage systems through an 8 percent operating power reduction while delivering 25 percent more capacity. This benefits IT administrators challenged with keeping up with growing storage demands on limited budgets.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it is now shipping in volume its 10 TB helium enterprise drives - the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD. Engineered to meet the storage needs of top cloud service providers, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD features the industry's lowest power and weight for maximum space efficiency at the lowest energy usage - lowering the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) of today's large scale data centers. Currently the highest capacity drives available worldwide, these innovative new products are now available to purchase direct from global distributors.

"Seagate has the most comprehensive Nearline portfolio in the industry. Each of our Nearline products - including our new flagship 10 TB helium enterprise drive shipping today - is designed to help customers take maximum advantage of top technology trends that have the highest impact on their business," said Mark Re, CTO at Seagate. "While we offer a number of impressive technology advantages, at the end of the day customers really want solutions and insights that help them better leverage the value of their data so they can offer services and capabilities unmatched by their competitors. Seagate's 10TB helium drive is designed with these market mandates front of mind."