IBM scientists have captured 330TB of uncompressed data into a tiny cartridge

IBM scientists have captured 330TB of uncompressed data into a tiny cartridge

IBM scientists, using magnetic tape developed by Sony Storage Media Solutions, managed to capture 330 terabytes of uncompressed data or the equivalent of 330 million books into a tiny cartridge. The tape drive is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. The record of 201 gigabits per square inch on prototype sputtered magnetic tape is more than 20 times the areal density currently used in commercial tape drives.

Tape drives were invented over 60 years ago and were traditionally used for archiving tax documents and health care records. According to the IBM, the milestone indicates the viability of continuing to scale up storage on tapes for another decade. 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 storage in the cloud.

In order to achieve such high storage capacity, IBM researchers had to develop several new technologies. IBM has worked closely with Sony for several years, particularly on enabling increased areal recording densities. 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.

It's a great news for everyone because this breakthrough in state-of-the-art technologies makes it possible to store huge amount of data in a tiny, easy-to carry device. The dynamically developing market of computer technologies offers consumers more sophisticated ways to store data, but as all electronics will eventually break, data loss is often inevitable. Companies like ACE Data Recovery have the most advanced facilities and experienced engineers to recover data for businesses, corporations, organizations, and individual computer users as fast as possible. ACEs can handle any data recovery process and recover data from every make and model of the storage device and regardless of the initial cause of the data loss.