By David Ponce
With all the hoopla over Bluray and HD-DVD, people tend to forget that there are other methods for storing data… like tape. Yeah, yeah, I know that tape doEsn’t have the same applications as optical disks, but I’m only using this as a lame introduction to the real news: IBM and Fuji have developed a tape prototype that can hold 6.67 billion bits of data per square inch, which is 15 times better than leading tape solutions in the market today.
My understanding is that the picture on the left represents a magnified picture of the new tape, while the one of the right, traditional tapes.
the image on the right is centered on a single track of data, with bits measuring 15 microns wide and 0.1 microns long. In the center of the left-hand image, are six tracks of data with bits measuring 1.5 microns wide and 0.06 microns long.
Of course, unless you’re an IT head, this doesn’t really affect you in any way. Still, it’s nice to know you can fit so much data on such a small space.
[Magnetic Tape Prototype] VIA [Digg]
