In Brief IBM and Sony have successfully developed a magnetic tape storage cartridge capable of containing more than 300 terabytes of data. This device, which comes in the smallest format there is, could revolutionize data storage even in cloud platforms. On a Roll

Magnetic tape drives have been around for more than six decades now. Its commercial use has been mostly for storing data, such as tax documents and health care records, from mainframe computers. From the first 2-megabyte tape drives in the 1950s, todays versions are now capable of storing up to 15 terabytes. IBM has been pushing it further.

In partnership with Sony Storage Media Solutions, IBM has broken its previousrecord for the worlds densest tape drive, announcing a product capable of storing 330 terabytes of uncompressed data. Thats more storage than the worlds biggest hard drives, capable of holdingabout 330 million books. The tape drives cartridge could fit into the palm of a persons hand.

The results of this collaboration have led to various improvements in the media technology, such as advanced roll-to-roll technology for long sputtered tape fabrication and better lubricant technology, which stabilizes the functionality of the magnetic tape, IBM fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou said in a statement, The Verge reported.

To achieve such storage capacity, IBM researchers had to develop new technologies, including advanced nanotech and new signal-processing algorithms. The end result was a tape that had an areal surface capable of storing 31gigabits per cm (201 gigabits per in). Details of the devices development was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

The end goal, of course, is commercial use. Specifically, IBM is looking to expand magnetic tape use to applications in the cloud. Tape has traditionally been used for video archives, back-up files, replicas for disaster recovery, and retention of information on premise, but the industry is also expanding to off-premise applications in the cloud, Eleftheriou said according to reporting from The Verge.

While sputtered tape is expected to cost a little more to manufacture than current commercial tape, the potential for very high capacity will make the cost per terabyte very attractive, making this technology practical for cold storage in the cloud, he added.

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IBM Announces Record Breaking New Data Storage Device - Futurism