IBM scientists have been able to fit 330TB uncompressed data into a tiny cassette that will fit into the palm of your hand.
A new world record was achieved by its scientists IBM, putting 330 terabytes of uncompressed data (or the equivalent of 330 million books) on a cassette that can fit in the palm of your hand. Recording 201 gigabits per square inch on a prototype thin magnetic tape is 20 times greater than the areal density currently used in commercial tapes. Recording areal density is the amount of information that can be stored on a given region material surface.
In the original photo, IBM scientist Dr. Mark Lange holds a piece of metallized tape, which can hold 201 gigabytes, which is a new world record.
For history, tape machines were invented over 60 years and have traditionally been used to archive tax documents and healthcare records. The first IBM tape machine used binuses with a half-inch tape and could store about 2 megabytes. The magnetic tape was developed by Sony as a storage media solution, and has managed to withstand even today.
According to Mr. Evangelos Eleftheriou, an IBM executive, magnetic tape has traditionally been used for video files, back-up files, but also in industry in off-premise applications in the cloud. While the metallized film is expected to cost a bit more for it construction of compared to current commercial tape, the potential for large capacity will make the cost per terabyte very attractive, making this technology practical for cloud storage.”
