Microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR)
An energy-assisted HDD approach that uses a spin-torque oscillator to lower write coercivity with microwaves instead of laser heating.
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.
Relations
- related
- hamr, pmr, nearline-hdd