Fujifilm and IBM have set a new record for data storage on tapes, managing to store 220 TB of uncompressed data on a cartridge. That’s 88 times more than will fit on currently used tapes. An LTO cartridge with a barium-ferrite magnetic tape was used.
The record was made possible by two new developments: Fujifilm contributed a new type of magnetic storage tape with finer barium ferrite particles and a length of 1255 m. In its research centre in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, IBM developed an improved write head technology that allows positioning of the read and write head to an accuracy of less than 6 nm and 181,300 parallel tracks per inch. Another development was an extremely narrow gap (90 nm) magnetoresistive read head and new signal processing algorithms.
The new tape technology is targeting the cloud storage provider market. It will allow them to economically transfer hardly used data onto tapes. (Source: IBM/rf)