 |
| IBM and Fujifilm develop a 580TB magnetic stripe |
(IBM) IBM, in partnership with (Fujifilm) Fujifilm, announced a major achievement to create a new magnetic storage tape with a capacity of 580 terabytes.
Additionally, all data stored by people and companies around the world must be backed up in some way in the cloud. Tape has long been a preferred backup medium, and IBM still believes the tape will maintain its best condition for decades.
The American company said that the only technology that can handle large amounts of data is magnetic tape, noting that the technology has been in use for more than 60 years.
IBM and Fujifilm have now announced 317GB tape storage. Enormous capacity was achieved with the prototype of a magnetic strip of strontium ferrite particles developed by Fujifilm.
Fujifilm's massive 317GB capacity equals 27 times the storage space available for modern commercial tape drives. The new memory allows a single stripe cartridge to store 580 TB of data. Focusing on capacity, IBM indicated that 580 terabytes equated to 786,977 CDs at 944 meters.
The current generation of magnetic tapes uses barium ferrite particles on magnetic tape storage medium. Fujifilm invented strontium ferrite particles in the chemistry lab for new magnetic strips to achieve superior performance and higher density storage in the same tape space. In addition to new particles, the company has also developed new technologies to achieve this recording, including: the tape's low-friction head.
Fujifilm has also developed a new range of servo drives that use head drives to maintain the precise position of the read and write heads in relation to the tape. These new machines can achieve an accuracy of 3.2 nanometers, a world record.