{
  "slug": "mamr",
  "term": "Microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR)",
  "aliases": [
    "MAMR"
  ],
  "definition": "An energy-assisted HDD approach that uses a spin-torque oscillator to lower write coercivity with microwaves instead of laser heating.",
  "note": "Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording assists writing to high-anisotropy media with microwave energy from a spin-torque oscillator near the write head, rather than a thermal laser pulse as in HAMR. Toshiba’s production branding is Flux Control MAMR (FC-MAMR): MG09 nearline drives (announced 2021) use FC-MAMR to deliver up to 18 TB CMR on a nine-disk helium design with SATA or SAS interfaces. Later Toshiba nearline generations combine FC-MAMR with SMR for higher sample capacities; research variants such as MAS-MAMR appear in lab demos and are not the same as the shipping FC-MAMR product claim. MAMR is a recording-physics path parallel to HAMR, not a replacement for CMR/SMR track layout choices.",
  "status": "limited",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [],
  "related": [
    "hamr",
    "pmr",
    "nearline-hdd"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "title": "Microwave-assisted magnetic recording",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave-assisted_magnetic_recording",
      "accessed": "2026-03-26"
    },
    {
      "id": "n2",
      "title": "Toshiba — 18TB MG09 Series HDD (FC-MAMR) announcement",
      "url": "https://news.toshiba.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/Toshiba-Announces-18TB-MG09-Series-Hard-Disk-Drives/default.aspx",
      "accessed": "2026-10-07"
    },
    {
      "id": "n3",
      "title": "Toshiba — High-reliability FC-MAMR nearline HDD 18 TB technical article",
      "url": "https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/content/dam/toshiba-ss-v3/master/en/storage/product/data-center-enterprise/202102025_nearlineHDD_18TB_e.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-07"
    },
    {
      "id": "n4",
      "title": "Toshiba — MG09 Series product overview PDF",
      "url": "https://storage.toshiba.com/docs/enterprise-hdd-documents/mg09-product-overview_rev-0.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-07"
    },
    {
      "id": "n5",
      "title": "Toshiba — MG09 Series product overview",
      "url": "https://storage.toshiba.com/enterprise-hdd/cloud-scale-capacity/mg09-series",
      "accessed": "2026-10-07"
    }
  ]
}