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Seagate launched its FireCuda Forge hybrid storage drives on Tuesday, pairing a high-capacity hard drive with a user-supplied SSD in one storage pool. The 8TB model costs $699 and the 20TB model $899, and neither includes the required SSD. Ars Technica reported that the launch revives the old hybrid idea, which had largely faded as solid-state storage got cheaper, and that rising storage prices in 2026 have made the approach economical again. The drives accept M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs of PCIe Gen3 or higher, with a 1TB maximum, and Seagate claims combined speeds of 2,500MB/s read and 2,000MB/s write. Ars Technica said Seagate's new Alkemi platform manages data placement from the enclosure, unlike Apple's 2012 Fusion Drive, whose failure risk Ars described as a concern. Ars Technica said Seagate has not explained how Alkemi handles drive failure, recovery or data placement, and it noted that the company has not published technical documentation on those points.