Alice & Bob, a leading hardware developer in the race to fault tolerant quantum computers, today announced the tape out of a new chip expected to improve error rates with every qubit added, making it a prototype for the company's first error-corrected, logical qubit.

The 16-qubit quantum processing unit (QPU), Helium 1, is the first chip in Alice & Bob's roadmap combining cat qubits to run an error correction code. The company will be able to use this platform to create its first logical qubit with error rates lower than any existing single physical qubit. With the tape-out complete, the chip enters a characterization and calibration phase that will be followed by a release on the cloud.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it will present the first live demonstrations of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) implementations on an MCU based on the Arm Cortex -M85 processor. The demos will show the performance uplift in AI/ML applications made possible by the new Cortex-M85 core and Arm's Helium technology. They will take place in the Renesas stand - Hall 1, Stand 234 (1-234) at the embedded world 2023 Exhibition and Conference in Nuremburg, Germany from March 14-16.

At embedded world in 2022, Renesas became the first company to demonstrate working silicon based on the Arm Cortex-M85 processor. This year, Renesas is extending its leadership by showcasing the features of the new processor in demanding AI use cases. The first demonstration showcases a people detection application developed in collaboration with Plumerai, a leader in Vision AI, that identifies and tracks persons in the camera frame in varying lighting and environmental conditions. The compact and efficient TinyML models used in this application lead to low-cost and lower power AI solutions for a wide range of IoT implementations. The second demo showcases a motor control predictive maintenance use case with an AI-based unbalanced load detection application using Tensorflow Lite for Microcontrollers with CMSIS-NN.

Today, Arm announced significant additions to its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, including new machine learning (ML) IP, the Arm Cortex -M55 processor and Arm Ethos -U55 NPU, the industry's first microNPU (Neural Processing Unit) for Cortex-M, designed to deliver a combined 480x leap in ML performance to microcontrollers. The new IP and supporting unified toolchain enable AI hardware and software developers with more ways to innovate as a result of unprecedented levels of on-device ML processing for billions of small, power-constrained IoT and embedded devices.

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.

As of June 30, 2018 we had 100,254 spinning hard drives in Backblaze's data centers. Of that number, there were 1,989 boot drives and 98,265 data drives. This review looks at the quarterly and lifetime statistics for the data drive models in operation in our data centers. We'll also take another look at comparing enterprise and consumer drives, get a first look at our 14 TB Toshiba drives, and introduce you to two new SMART stats. Along the way, we'll share observations and insights on the data presented and we look forward to you doing the same in the comments.
Hard Drive Reliability Statistics for Q2 2018

Of the 98,265 hard drives we were monitoring at the end of Q2 2018, we removed from consideration those drives used for testing purposes and those drive models for which we did not have at least 45 drives. This leaves us with 98,184 hard drives. The table below covers just Q2 2018.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in data storage solutions, today unveiled its 14TB helium-based ExosTM X14 enterprise drive at the OCP U.S. Summit 2018 in San Jose, Calif. The Seagate Exos X14 delivers high performance and greater capacity for hyperscale data centers looking to efficiently and cost-effectively manage increasing amounts of data.

Enterprises across the globe face the daunting challenge of managing a massive increase in data volume as the world is expected to create 163 zettabytes of data in 2025, according to a study by analyst firm IDC and sponsored by Seagate. As the need for hyperscale and cloud storage rises to unprecedented levels, Seagate's Exos X14 hard drive is a direct response to customer demand for increased enterprise storage capacity and efficiency.

Western Digital Corp. today announced that it has begun shipping its fourth-generation helium-based hard drive with its 12TB HGST-branded Ultrastar He12 hard drive. The Ultrastar He12 12TB hard drive is the next generation of the company's award-winning high capacity enterprise-class drive with HelioSeal technology, providing customers with a data storage solution addressing the expansive information management needs and demanding performance requirements of today's enterprise, cloud and hyperscale workloads.

"We have again raised the bar in enterprise storage with the industry's most advanced and cost-effective highest capacity helium HDD storage solutions," said Mark Grace, senior vice president of devices at Western Digital. "The Ultrastar He12 hard drive advances Western Digital's portfolio leveraging the HelioSeal platform to deliver industry-leading high capacity HDD storage with exceptional power efficiency. Western Digital has shipped over 15M helium-based high capacity drives to date and continues to support our customers with outstanding reliability and Quality of Service (QoS). Our industry-leading data center portfolio enables customers across the spectrum to meet their evolving and dynamic data center demand."

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."

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today launched its first 10TB enterprise capacity hard disk drive (HDD), merging high capacity with the industry's lowest power and weight available in a 10TB drive, to meet the growing storage requirements for private and public cloud-based data centers. The Seagate Enterprise 3.5 Capacity HDD has been selected by enterprise market leaders globally for its ability to address storage demands unlike any other technology in the industry.

"Cloud-based data center storage needs are expanding faster than many current infrastructures can sustain, rendering the capacity demands of users a herculean task for cloud managers," said Mark Re, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Seagate. "Built on our years of research and development of sealed-drive technology, our new helium-based enterprise drive is designed precisely to help data-centric organizations worldwide solve the needs of their growing storage business."

With more than one million helium-filled hard disk drives (HDDs) deployed, HGST, a Western Digital company today announced it has achieved a new milestone in reliability as the only manufacturer with drives field-proven and rated for two and a half (2.5) million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). Today's news demonstrates that HGST's helium HDDs are poised to become the mainstream choice for data center applications where storage density, reliability and power efficiency are paramount. Now shipping its second generation HelioSeal Platform drives, HGST is shifting its volume mix and ramping Helium production to meet strengthening customer demand across cloud and mainstream data center applications.

With strong market acceptance from the largest cloud service providers, Internet giants, OEMs and businesses around the world, including Netflix, Huawei, Inspur, HP, OVH, Starline, Buffalo, DataON, DDN and Racktop to name a few, the HGST HelioSeal Platform represents proven innovation in high-capacity HDD technology and reliability, while lowering true total cost of ownership (TCO). While there are a number of ways to increase hard drive capacity, HGST's HelioSeal platform is the only technology to provide unmatched reliability and a long-term path for delivering higher capacity storage on a standard 3.5-inch HDD form factor, while lowering power and drive temperature at the same time. All this equates to best storage density, TB-per-system weight, TB/Sq. foot and lowest watt/TB for enterprise and cloud data centers.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced that its Enterprise and SMB-class Turbo NAS products now support HGST's Ultrastar He8 helium-filled hard disk drives (HDDs). By incorporating HGST's HelioSeal platform technology, enterprise users benefit from enhanced NAS performance, maximized storage capacity, and optimum energy efficiency for reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).

Leveraging the inherent benefits of helium, which is one-seventh the density of air, the HGST Ultrastar He8 advances the TCO value proposition for hyperscale cloud data centers, enterprises, SMBs, and system integrators. Combining industry-leading storage capacity with industry-leading low power consumption, the HGST Ultrastar He8 is an ideal large-capacity 3.5-inch HDD solution for businesses to store, secure and harness the power of data.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a professional network attached storage (NAS) provider, today announced that its Enterprise and SMB class Turbo NAS products support the 6TB HGST Ultrastar He6 helium-filled SAS hard disk drive (HDD). By incorporating HGST's HelioSeal platform technology, business users receive enhanced NAS performance with maximized storage capacity and low power for reduced total cost of ownership.

The inherent benefit of helium, which is one-seventh the density of air, helps reduce the turbulence caused by spinning disks in a HDD, thereby cutting power consumption and lowering drive temperature, making the HGST Ultrastar He6 HDD an ideal large-capacity 3.5-inch HDD solution for enterprises and SMBs to store and secure growing business data.

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced that the company has entered a partnership with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), a leading HDD provider, to deploy the new HGST Ultrastar He6 6 terabyte (TB) helium-filled hard disk drives (HDDs) into its storage systems. Being one of the first vendors across the world to employ HGST's helium-filled HDDs, which feature the largest capacity in the industry, Huawei is dedicated to providing storage products and solutions with high capacities and reduced power consumption.

"Huawei is very glad to collaborate with HGST in the helium-filled hard drive domain. With a high-density design, the integration of this technology into Huawei's storage systems, will enable us to provide customers with storage products and solutions that offer bigger capacity, higher efficiency and lower power-consumption," said Mr. Fan Ruiqi, President of Storage Product Line, Huawei Enterprise.

HGST, a Western Digital company, today announced that it is shipping the 6 TB Ultrastar He6 hard disk drive (HDD). Key OEM, cloud and research leaders working closely with HGST to qualify the drive include HP, Netflix, Huawei Unified Storage, CERN, Green Revolution Cooling and Code42, as well as some of the world's largest social media and search companies.

Revealed in September 2012, HGST's cutting-edge HelioSeal platform provides a path for higher capacity storage for decades to come while significantly lowering customer total cost of ownership (TCO). Leveraging the inherent benefits of helium, which is one-seventh the density of air, the new Ultrastar He6 drive features HGST's innovative 7Stac disk design with 6 TB, making it the world's highest capacity HDD with the best TCO for cloud storage, massive scale-out environments, disk-to-disk backup, and replicated or RAID environments.