Seagate Technology is boosting investments in laser-assisted hard disk drive technology that it projects will allow it to increase capacity five-fold.

The laser technology, known as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), is able to write smaller, more-stable bits onto the magnetic surface of a spinning disk. Today, Seagate’s largest capacity drive using conventional recording is 6TB. Using HAMR, that capacity could theoretically increase to 30TB.

Last month, Invest Northern Ireland, a regional business development agency, announced Seagate had dropped about $55 million into further financing its existing wafer facility in Northern Ireland, which is developing HAMR technology. The Dublin facility is one of two working on HAMR; the other is located in Minnesota.

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