Seagate's FireCuda Forge external drive shifts data between a hard drive and an SSD
US storage maker Seagate has launched the FireCuda Forge, an external storage product that pairs SSD speed with the lower cost of a high-capacity hard drive. Its new Alkemi platform moves data between the two drives.
Storage device maker Seagate has announced a new external storage product, the FireCuda Forge, which combines the speed of an SSD (solid-state drive) with the affordability of a higher-capacity hard drive. It is now available through the company's online store.
The FireCuda Forge is the first device built on Seagate's new Alkemi intelligent storage platform. The system learns how the user works with data and moves the files currently in use, or used most often, onto the faster SSD.
Pricing and what is included
The Forge is sold with an 8TB hard drive for $699 or a 20TB hard drive for $899. Both hard drives can be replaced by the user. The NVMe SSD, a fast flash storage drive, is not included, and with a memory shortage under way, buying one will significantly raise the total price.
How it differs from existing options
Combining a hard drive with flash storage is not a new idea, and Seagate has sold hybrid drives with built-in flash memory for decades. What is new is that the Forge lets users pick which hard drive and which SSD to use together. It resembles network attached storage (NAS) setups, in which an SSD temporarily caches frequently used data, but Seagate says the Forge works differently.
Alkemi uses machine learning to move data dynamically between the drives depending on the current workload and the data it needs. As the user's tasks change, data is reorganized across the two drives, yet it always appears to the computer as a single drive.
Speed
The FireCuda Forge delivers read speeds of up to 2,500MB/s and write speeds of up to 2,000MB/s. These figures apply to computers running at least Windows 11 or macOS 26.
