Flex Dynamic Recording

Hard disk drives are capable of various recording methods without changing the hardware. For example, shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is a technique in which higher track density is obtained, but with a tradeoff of requiring sequential writing through a band of tracks. I introduce a new way of letting the storage manager dynamically, in the field, specify different recording methods for different parts of the media in the device. This article prepares readers for this upcoming disk technology by describing the opportunities to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) and exploring the new device interface that needs to be defined.