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IBM Sets Record in Magnetic Tape Data Density
Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 5/16/2006
IBM researchers claimed a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape today, packing data onto a test tape at a density of 6.67 billion bits per square inch -- more than 15 times the data density of current industry standard magnetic tape products.
The results, say IBM, indicate that magnetic tape data storage, one of the computer industry’s oldest means of storage, should be able to maintain its cost advantage over other technologies while providing increased capacity for years to come.
The researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., achieved the results with several new data-recording technologies and through work with Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd. of Japan to develop a next-generation dual-coat magnetic tape capable of storing high-density data. The Almaden researchers also developed technologies to improve the capabilities of read-write heads -- specifically magnetic tape technology that for the first time employs the sensitive giant-magnetoresistive head materials and structures used to sense very small magnetic fields in hard disk drives -- and the methods for positioning the heads and handling the tape to allow data tracks one-tenth as wide as in current products. Scientists from IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory further developed a new coding method that improved the accuracy of reading the tiny magnetic bits.
IBM expects that when these new technologies and tape become available in products in about five years, a cartridge the size of an industry-standard Linear Tape Open (LTO) tape cartridge could hold up to 8 trillion bytes (terabytes) of uncompressed data -- 20 times the capacity of today's LTO-Generation 3 cartridge and equivalent to the text in 8 million books. This will become more valuable, IBM believes, as such acts as Sarbanes-Oxley continue to demand storage for large, infrequently used volumes of data.
"With analysts projecting tape automation revenue to grow 8 percent annually through 2011, our customers are storing increasing amounts of data to manage their enterprises and to address the compliance requirements of laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,” said Cindy Grossman, VP of IBM Tape Storage Systems, in a statement. “Greater data density and cartridge capacity enables them to store more data in less space, helping to keep magnetic tape as the most cost-effective form of data storage."
The claims today outdo IBM’s previous 2002 storage demonstration, when the company broke records by placing a terabyte of data onto a single 3592-sized cartridge at a density of 1 billion bits per square inch.
"This demonstration confirms IBM's continued leadership in magnetic tape technology," said Spike Narayan, senior manager of advanced technology concepts at IBM Almaden. "This is a major milestone in our program and gives magnetic tape the density boost that we gave hard-disk drives in the 1990s."
The demonstration was performed at product-level tape speeds (4 meters per second) and achieved error rates that should be correctable, using advanced error-correction techniques, to meet IBM's specification for its LTO-3 products, the company said.
