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IBM Sets Areal Density Record for Magnetic Tape
digitalPhant0m writes to tell us that IBM researchers have set a new world record for areal data density on linear magnetic tape, weighing in at around 29.5 billion bits per square inch. This achievement is roughly 39 times the density of current industry standard magnetic tape. "To achieve this feat, IBM Research has developed several new critical technologies, and for the past three years worked closely with FUJIFILM to optimize its next-generation dual-coat magnetic tape based on barium ferrite (BaFe) particles. [...] These new technologies are estimated to enable cartridge capacities that could hold up to 35 trillion bytes (terabytes) of uncompressed data. This is about 44 times the capacity of today's IBM LTO Generation 4 cartridge. A capacity of 35 terabytes of data is sufficient to store the text of 35 million books, which would require 248 miles (399 km) of bookshelves."
I wish I was a researcher working on improving areola density. I didn't think IBM had those kinds of jobs. It certainly never came up at the job fair they were at when I was in college.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Casette Tapes are coming back!
If Only I still had a Deck!
... IBM researchers have set a record for compressing the most records of cattle onto clay tablets using their proprietary new cuneiform.
*The demonstration was performed at product-level tape speeds (2 meters per second) and achieved error rates that are correctable using standard error-correction techniques to meet IBM's performance specification for its LTO Generation 4 products.
**Note that this calculation assumes a roughly 12% increase in tape length due to the reduced medium thickness.
***Note that this has been rounded up from 43.75 times
So what about speed? What good is the ability to store 35TB of data, if it takes you a week to write/read it?
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
hmmm... I wonder, I could backup all my server's and desktop's with full uncompressed backup every month on a single cardrige
And see how many "libraries of congress" you can shift coast to coast (google maps says about 41 hours DC to LA by car)
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
So in other words, 3.6875 GB/ inch^2 We have units for this stuff guys, dunno why we suddenly went back to "billion bits"
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
I'd tell you what the previous record was for backup tape... but it got archived at the end of my last backup and will take a few hours to get back. Sorry, I'll try harder next time.
That's great, but how long will it hold the data?
Are`al
Of or pertaining to an area; as, areal interstices (the areas or spaces inclosed by the reticulate vessels of leaves).
Inclose is a word too. Huh.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Just fill an envelope with MicroSD cards :)
For those of you who are confused by these scary looking Terrorbytes, these tapes would hold about a third of a Library of Congress each.
I read the internet for the articles.
Now governments and big corporations can misplace even *more* data!
"The Library of Congress burned down? No worries chief! I got the whole thing backed up on the tape right here in my desk. (opens and closes drawers) Right here.. in.. my... oh shizzle."
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
It's always sobering to watch shows like Population Zero etc. and realize that our civ. may be completely undiscoverable come 2k years from now.
Joe's Pizza Delivery and Data Courier Co loses the personal health and financial records of every human being on earth.
tape still sucks. higher density just means you lose more faster when you can't read back the headers etc. You still get the joys of sequential access, of which the only true component is the ability to go get a coffee while the tape drive picks its teeth before actually streaming bits.
Oops. We didn't need that 35TB of data anyway.
a USB port for my Kindle uploads?
Thanks in advance.
Yours In Murmansk,
Kilgore Trout
finally a magnetic tape that will allow me to record blu-ray movies on my VHS cassettes with full 1080p.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
"29.5 billion bits per square inch"
I'm sorry, what?
Could we have this in libraries of congress per furlong?
Oh boy! Finally a media that can hold my porn collection.
Too bad IBM don't make hard disk drives anymore...
> IBM Sets Areal Density Record for Magnetic Tape
From the trailer for Chloe, it looks like Amanda Seyfried has a very low areolar density, due to it's large size.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Back when computers where the domain on the cool, long before the time of the luser, tape was the thing to have for data storage. I am thrilled to see it come back. I can only hope it is off-white, has rounded corners, and has mechanical buttons to push and play. And of course, being tape, you can rest assured that the integrity of the data is there because you have two copies, one after the other. But don't put it on the radiator. Port 123, I love you!
Why bother explaining how many miles of bookshelves would be needed to hold some amount of digital data? We don't explain how long a bookshelf would have to be to hold all the data in an HDTV screenful, and 35TB data tapes are probably going to hold more graphics than text. Besides, how big is the type in the books filling that shelf? And who but a librarian is going to relate to miles of bookshelves as a meaningful comparison, anyway?
Why don't they say "a 35TB tape is enough to hold 5 million full CDs, or 7,778 full DVDs? That's a comparison that people could actually relate to, that is actually factual, and isn't just some kind of primitive awe at how efficient we've become now that we store data on something not made of mashed trees.
--
make install -not war
huh? Weird metrics... Why not just tell us it's about 3.5 LoC ?
Almost enough to hold Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time."
As Linus has said before 'Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it'
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
Sure it sounds great.
By the time the drives and cartridges come out disk will still be cheaper.
Tape is dead.
The cost and speed issues will kill tape unless they get these advances from the lab to the store FAST.
1TB SATA $80
What tape has over hard disks is simplicity.
Yes and No (mostly "No"). Although a tape cartridge can be a physically reliable device; tape drives (except perhaps at the extreme high end) are typically not. Further, they often evolve in not-backwards-compatible ways.
A disk drive contains both the media and the mechanism. It typically costs 2x as much as tape EVEN IF YOU CONSIDER THE WHOLE DRIVE THE MEDIA.
Tape drives, on the other hand, are expensive and touchy beasts where the moving parts are exposed to air and dust.
Further while the mechanism to read the tape involves some kind of fairly standard interface that doesn't change all that fast (e.g. SCSI, IDE) the tape itself tends to evolve. Reading a first generation 8mm Exabyte tape isn't even possible on recent tape drives (is that format even still in use?).
A disk more typically needs to have some kind of format that's still around, power and a standard interface (SCSI, IDE) and that's it.
This means the total system: tape+drive is less likely (in my opinion) to be available/documented/repairable than a disk drive.
I've read 20 year old tapes and 20 year old disks and neither was a pleasant experience....but I'll take the disks. Especially if I have a lot of the same kind of disks (for parts). Also, I suspect less magnetic leakage since in a tape the magnetic regions are close to each other in 3 rather than 2 dimensions.
Reliably reading 50 year old tapes for any reasonable amount of money is, again in my opinion, something of a fantasy. Same for magnetic disks at that age although I have hopes for DVD-type media....but I am not an expert in archive media, just someone that actually has to read the stuff.
About 545.09 MB/cm^2.
Doesn’t sound that great now, compared to a hard disk, does it?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
It takes real silicon experts to achieve this.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Naturally, areola density is encoded in Braille.
My research hasn't been as extensive as I'd like, but I've come to the conclusion that the information density of the areola is pretty limited. One bit per areola is the most I've encountered so far.
Oblig xkcd 691