It has been over a year since Western Digital unveiled the world's first 2TB hard drive, so you could say we're due a bump in capacity.
Fortunately for those who can never have too much storage, it looks as though 3TB drives are now drawing near. According to the folks at The Register, Seagate could be first in line with a 3TB Constellation ES drive that's said to be scheduled for "later this year".
Equipped with a 6Gb/s SAS interface, the Constellation ES-series drives feature a rotational speed of 7,200rpm and currently max out at 2TB in capacity.
The introduction of a 3TB model later in the year shouldn't come as a surprise. Hard disk manufacturers have previously predicted that 3TB drives would be a possibility in 2010, and magnetic media specialist TDK was recently said to be on the verge of introducing the world's first 640GB platters.
Offering a sizeable increase from today's 500GB platters, the increased-density disks would allow drive manufacturers to produce 3.5in drives with capacities of up to 2.5TB or 3TB, with four or five platters, respectively.
Although there are currently no details regarding the platter density of Seagate's drive, all signs suggest that the race to introduce the world's first 3TB drive in 2010 is on.
