The IEEE Roadmap and Systems (IRDS) recently released a technical roadmap report on Mass Data Storage, with a focus on hard disk drives, magnetic tape, optical disc technology, solid state storage, and non-volatile memory technologies. The report, co-chaired by experts Roger Hoyt and the author, provides insights into the current state and future developments in the storage industry, including the use of DNA for archive storage. The report is available for free download from the IEEE website, as part of a biannual Mass Storage Roadmap effort.
Solid state storage, dominated by NAND flash, is currently a $60B market but faces competition from alternative technologies like MRAM, FeRAM, ReRAM, and PCM. While these technologies are more costly per bit, they are being utilized in embedded devices to replace NOR flash and SRAM. The report predicts a recovery year for all storage and memory technologies in 2024 after down years in 2022 and 2023, attributed to supply uncertainties during the pandemic. Future developments focus on increasing layers and bits per cell for NAND flash, although cost reductions are becoming more challenging.
The report also highlights the declining unit shipments of HDDs, as legacy applications are replaced by SSDs. However, the data center and enterprise nearline HDDs market has recovered in 2024 due to growing demand for HDD storage in big data applications, including AI. Future developments in HDD technology, such as heat-assisted magnetic recording and two-dimensional magnetic recording, are expected to increase capacities up to 50TB by 2026, making HDDs competitive against SSDs for secondary storage and active archive applications.
Magnetic half-inch tape remains a cost-effective archival storage solution, with native capacities available up to 50TB and projected to exceed 100TB in future generations. Tape benefits from developments in HDD magnetic recording for capacity increases. Optical disc technology has shifted focus from consumer media distribution to low-cost archival storage, with projections for write-once 100TB optical discs in the near future. However, optical libraries face competition from magnetic tape libraries for archival applications.
DNA data storage, although still costly for practical applications, shows potential as an affordable alternative for archive storage as costs for reading and writing synthetic DNA continue to decrease. The technology is currently in the developmental stage, with much work needed to create a manufacturable and cost-effective DNA storage system. The increasing demand for digital storage underscores the need for advanced storage technologies, as outlined in the IEEE IRDS Mass Storage Roadmap projections for NAND flash, emerging non-volatile memories, HDDs, magnetic tape, optical recording, and DNA storage.
