IBM scientists have achieved a world record — they’ve managed to store a whopping 330TB of uncompressed data into a tiny cartridge that can fit in the palm of a hand.
Interestingly, the team managed to do this thanks to a drive made from magnetic tape developed by Sony Storage Media Solutions. Altogether, the IBM scientists’ drive counted for 201 gigabits per square inch. To put this into perspective, this more than 20 times the areal density — the amount of information that can be stored on a given area — that is used in commercial tape drives. As well, IBM says under the proper temperature controls, this special tape can “easily” last 30 years and beyond.
Tape drives have been around for at least 60 years, with IBM’s first unit — made up of only half-inch wide tape — only being able to hold about 2MB. The history of the tape can be seen in the graphic below.
“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,” said IBM Fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou in a statement. “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.”
Image credit: IBM
Via: The Verge
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