The prototype of a particulate strontium ferrite magnetic tape developed by Fujifilm offers an areal density of 317 GB per square inch, about 27 times more than current state-of-the-art commercial tape drives, which are a new record according to IBM.
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Tech giant IBM and Fujifilm have jointly developed magnetic storage media that can store approximately 580 terabytes (TB) of data in a single cartridge. In addition to storing backup and archive data, applications can exist in hybrid cloud environments.
The strontium ferrite (SrFe) particle magnetic tape developed by Fujifilm offers an areal density of 317 GB per square inch, around 27 times higher than current state-of-the-art commercial tape drives, which are a new record according to IBM.
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This is possible because SrFe can be made into smaller particles with “superior properties” that provide higher density storage on the same amount of tape compared to today’s tape drives that use barium ferrite (BaFe) particles to coat the magnetic tape storage media IBM in a blog post explained.
In addition, they have developed technologies such as a new low-friction tape head and a detector that enables reliable data acquisition with an extremely narrow reading sensor.
According to the tech giant, around 2.5 trillion bytes of data are currently being produced every day, and at that rate, global data is expected to reach 175 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025 (one ZB equals one trillion gigabytes).
There are now more than 500 hyperscale data centers worldwide that store an estimated 547 exabytes (EB) of actual data. More than 151 facilities are in operation. According to IBM, technology companies and academic institutions continue to use magnetic tape technology for archiving.
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“It’s the tape’s low cost per gigabyte, long-term durability, reliability, low power, security and scalability that have driven progress and ensured its longevity well into the future,” he added.
IBM estimates that there are more than 345,000 EB of data in magnetic tape storage systems today – a technology that is more than 60 years old.