Magnetic-tape data storage is a system for storing
digital information
Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digit (unit), digits. ...
on
magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
using
digital recording
In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storage de ...
.
Tape was an important medium for
primary data storage
Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers.
The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer ...
in early computers, typically using large open
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...
s of
7-track, later
9-track tape. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes, such as the widely supported
Linear Tape-Open
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a syste ...
(LTO)
[
] and
IBM 3592 series. The device that performs the writing or reading of data is called a
tape drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability.
...
.
Autoloaders
An autoloader or auto-loader is a mechanical aid or replacement for the personnel that load ordnance into crew-served weapons without being an integrated part of the gun itself. The term is generally only applied to larger weapons, such as nava ...
and
tape libraries
In computer storage, a tape library, sometimes called a tape silo, tape robot or tape jukebox, is a storage device that contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a barcode reader to identify tape cartridges ...
are often used to automate cartridge handling and exchange. Compatibility was important to enable transferring data.
Tape data storage is now used more for system backup, data archive and data exchange. The low cost of tape has kept it viable for long-term storage and archive.
Open reels
Initially, magnetic tape for data storage was wound on
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...
s. This standard for large computer systems persisted through the late 1980s, with steadily increasing capacity due to thinner substrates and changes in encoding. Tape cartridges and cassettes were available starting in the mid-1970s and were frequently used with small computer systems. With the introduction of the IBM 3480 cartridge in 1984, described as "about one-fourth the size ... yet it stored up to 20 percent more data", large computer systems started to move away from open-reel tapes and towards cartridges.
UNIVAC
Magnetic tape was first used to record computer data in 1951 on the
UNIVAC I. The
UNISERVO The UNISERVO tape drive was the primary I/O device on the UNIVAC I computer. It was the first tape drive for a commercially sold computer.
The UNISERVO used metal tape: a thin strip of nickel-plated phosphor bronze (called Vicalloy) 1200 feet lon ...
drive recording medium was a thin metal strip of wide
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
-plated
phosphor bronze
Phosphor bronze is a member of the family of copper alloys. It is composed of copper that is alloyed with 0.5–11% of tin and 0.01–0.35% phosphorus, and may contain other elements to confer specific properties (e.g. lead at 0.5–3.0% to form ...
. Recording density was 128 characters per inch (198 micrometres per character) on eight tracks at a linear speed of , yielding a data rate of 12,800 characters per second. Of the eight tracks, six were data, one was for
parity, and one was a clock, or timing track. Making allowances for the empty space between tape blocks, the actual transfer rate was around 7,200 characters per second. A small reel of
mylar
BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and aro ...
tape provided separation from the metal tape and the read/write head.
IBM formats
IBM computers from the 1950s used
ferric-oxide-coated tape similar to that used in audio recording. IBM's technology soon became the
de facto industry standard. Magnetic tape dimensions were wide and wound on removable reels. Different tape lengths were available with and on
mil and one half thickness being somewhat standard. During the 1980s, longer tape lengths such as became available using a much thinner
PET film. Most tape drives could support a maximum reel size of . A so-called ''mini-reel'' was common for smaller data sets, such as for software distribution. These were reels, often with no fixed length—the tape was sized to fit the amount of data recorded on it as a cost-saving measure.
CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
used IBM-compatible magnetic tapes, but also offered a variant, with 14 tracks (12 data tracks corresponding to the 12-bit word of
CDC 6000 series The CDC 6000 series is a discontinued family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. It consisted of the CDC 6200, CDC 6300, CDC 6400, CDC 6500, CDC 6600 and CDC 6700 computers, which were all extremely rapid a ...
peripheral processors, plus 2 parity bits) in the CDC 626 drive.
Early IBM tape drives, such as the
IBM 727
The IBM 727 Magnetic Tape Unit was announced for the IBM 701 and IBM 702 on September 25, 1953. It became IBM's standard tape drive for their early vacuum-tube era computer systems. Later vacuum-tube machines and first-generation transistor co ...
and
IBM 729
The IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Unit was IBM's iconic tape mass storage system from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s. Part of the IBM 7 track family of tape units, it was used on late 700, most 7000 and many 1400 series computers. Like its prede ...
, were mechanically sophisticated floor-standing drives that used
vacuum columns to buffer long u-shaped loops of tape. Between servo control of powerful reel motors, a low-mass capstan drive, and the low-friction and controlled tension of the vacuum columns, fast start and stop of the tape at the tape-to-head interface could be achieved. The fast acceleration is possible because the tape
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
in the vacuum columns is small; the length of tape buffered in the columns provides time to accelerate the high-
inertia
Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
reels. When active, the two tape reels thus fed tape into or pulled tape out of the vacuum columns, intermittently spinning in rapid, unsynchronized bursts, resulting in visually striking action. Stock shots of such vacuum-column tape drives in motion were ironically used to represent computers in movies and television.
Early half-inch tape had seven parallel tracks of data along the length of the tape, allowing 6-bit characters plus 1 bit of
parity written across the tape. This was known as
7-track tape. With the introduction of the
IBM System/360
The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...
mainframe,
9-track tapes were introduced to support the new 8-bit characters that it used. The end of a file was designated by a special recorded pattern called a
tape mark
In computing, end-of-file (EOF) is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. The data source is usually called a file or stream.
Details
In the C standard library, the character reading funct ...
, and end of the recorded data on a tape by two successive tape marks. The physical beginning and end of usable tape was indicated by reflective adhesive strips of aluminum foil placed on the backside.
Recording density increased over time. Common 7-track densities started at 200 characters per inch (CPI), then 556, and finally 800; 9-track tapes had densities of 800 (using
NRZI), then 1600 (using
PE), and finally 6250 (using
GCR). This translates into about 5 megabytes to 140 megabytes per standard length () reel of tape. Effective density also increased as the interblock gap (
inter-record gap) decreased from a nominal on 7-track tape reel to a nominal on a 6250 bpi 9-track tape reel.
At least partly due to the success of the System/360, and the resultant standardization on 8-bit character codes and byte addressing, 9-track tapes were very widely used throughout the computer industry during the 1970s and 1980s. IBM discontinued new reel-to-reel products replacing them with cartridge based products beginning with its 1984 introduction of the cartridge-based
3480 family.
DEC format
LINCtape
DECtape, originally called Microtape, is a magnetic tape data storage medium used with many Digital Equipment Corporation computers, including the PDP-6, PDP-8, LINC-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-12, and the PDP-15. On DEC's 32-bit systems, VAX/V ...
, and its derivative,
DECtape
DECtape, originally called Microtape, is a magnetic tape data storage medium used with many Digital Equipment Corporation computers, including the PDP-6, PDP-8, LINC-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-12, and the PDP-15. On DEC's 32-bit systems, VA ...
were variations on this "round tape". They were essentially a personal storage medium, used tape that was wide and featured a fixed formatting track which, unlike standard tape, made it feasible to read and rewrite blocks repeatedly in place. LINCtapes and DECtapes had similar capacity and data transfer rate to the
diskette
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
s that displaced them, but their
access time
Access time is the time delay or latency between a request to an electronic system, and the access being completed or the requested data returned
* In a computer, it is the time interval between the instant at which an instruction control uni ...
s were on the order of thirty seconds to a minute.
Cartridges and cassettes
In the context of magnetic tape, the term ''cassette'' or ''cartridge'' means a length of magnetic tape in a plastic enclosure with one or two reels for controlling the motion of the tape. The type of packaging affects the load and unload times as well as the length of tape that can be held. In a single-reel cartridge, there is a takeup reel in the drive while a dual reel cartridge has both takeup and supply reels in the cartridge. A tape drive uses one or more precisely controlled motors to wind the tape from one reel to the other, passing a read/write head as it does.
![3590Tape](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/3590Tape.JPG)
A different type is the
endless tape cartridge An endless tape cartridge is a tape cartridge or cassette that contains magnetic audio tape that can be played in an endless loop, without the need to rewind to repeat.
Description
The endless tape cartridge has a tape transport that allows forwa ...
, which has a continuous loop of tape wound on a special reel that allows tape to be withdrawn from the center of the reel and then wrapped up around the edge, and therefore does not need to rewind to repeat. This type is similar to a single-reel cartridge in that there is no take-up reel inside the tape drive.
The
IBM 7340
The IBM 7340 "Hypertape" system was a magnetic tape data storage format designed to work with the IBM 7074, 7080 and 7090 computers that was introduced in 1961 and withdrawn in 1971.
As a technology, it deviated in several ways from the then do ...
Hypertape drive, introduced in 1961, used a dual reel cassette with a tape capable of holding 2 million six-bit characters per cassette.
In the 1970s and 1980s, audio
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
s were frequently used as an inexpensive data storage system for
home computers, or in some cases for diagnostics or boot code for larger systems such as the
Burroughs B1700
The Burroughs B1000 Series was a series of mainframe computers, built by the Burroughs Corporation, and originally introduced in the 1970s with continued software development until 1987. The series consisted of three major generations which were t ...
. Compact cassettes are logically, as well as physically, sequential; they must be rewound and read from the start to load data. Early cartridges were available before personal computers had affordable disk drives, and could be used as
random access
Random access (more precisely and more generally called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum from a population of addressable elements roughly as easily and efficiently as any othe ...
devices, automatically winding and positioning the tape, albeit with access times of many seconds.
In 1984 IBM introduced the
3480 family of single reel cartridges and tape drives which were then manufactured by a number of vendors through at least 2004. Initially providing 200 megabytes per cartridge, the family capacity increased over time to 2.4 gigabytes per cartridge.
DLT (Digital Linear Tape), also a cartridge-based tape, was available beginning 1984 but as of 2007 future development was stopped in favor of LTO.
In 2003 IBM introduced the
3592 family to supersede the
IBM 3590
The IBM 3590 is a series of tape drives and corresponding magnetic tape data storage media formats developed by IBM. The first drive, having the IBM product number 3590, was introduced in 1995 under the nickname Magstar. The 3590 series of tape ...
. While the name is similar, there is no compatibility between the 3590 and the 3592. Like the 3590 and 3480 before it, this tape format has tape spooled into a single reel cartridge. Initially introduced to support 300 gigabytes, the sixth generation released in 2018 supports a native capacity of 20 terabytes.
Linear Tape-Open
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a syste ...
(LTO) single-reel cartridge was announced in 1997 at 100 megabytes and in its eighth generation supports 12 terabytes in the same sized cartridge. LTO has
completely displaced all other tape technologies in computer applications, with the exception of some IBM 3592 family at the high-end.
Technical details
Linear density
(BPI) is the metric for the density at which data is stored on magnetic media. The term BPI can refer to , but more often refers to
byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
s per inch.
The term BPI can mean
byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
s per inch when the tracks of a particular format are byte-organized, as in 9-track tapes.
Tape width
The width of the media is the primary classification criterion for tape technologies. has historically been the most common width of tape for high-capacity data storage. Many other sizes exist and most were developed to either have smaller packaging or higher capacity.
Recording method
Recording method is also an important way to classify tape technologies, generally falling into two categories: linear and scanning.
Linear
The linear method arranges data in long parallel tracks that span the length of the tape. Multiple tape heads simultaneously write parallel tape tracks on a single medium. This method was used in early tape drives. It is the simplest recording method, but also has the lowest data density.
A variation on linear technology is linear serpentine recording, which uses more tracks than tape heads. Each head still writes one track at a time. After making a pass over the whole length of the tape, all heads shift slightly and make another pass in the reverse direction, writing another set of tracks. This procedure is repeated until all tracks have been read or written. By using the linear serpentine method, the tape medium can have many more tracks than read/write heads. Compared to simple linear recording, using the same tape length and the same number of heads, data storage capacity is substantially higher.
Scanning
Scanning recording methods write short dense tracks across the width of the tape medium, not along the length. Tape heads are placed on a drum or disk which rapidly rotates while the relatively slow-moving tape passes it.
An early method used to get a higher data rate than the prevailing linear method was ''transverse scan''. In this method, a spinning disk with the tape heads embedded in the outer edge is placed perpendicular to the path of the tape. This method is used in
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
's DCRsi instrumentation data recorders and the old
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
quadruplex videotape
2-inch quadruplex videotape (also called 2″ quad video tape or quadraplex) was the first practical and commercially successful analog recording video tape format. It was developed and released for the broadcast television industry in 1956 by A ...
system. Another early method was ''arcuate scan''. In this method, the heads are on the face of a spinning disk which is laid flat against the tape. The path of the tape heads forms an arc.
Helical scan
Helical scan is a method of recording high-frequency signals on magnetic tape. It is used in open-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives.
History
Earl E Masterson from ...
recording writes short dense tracks in a ''diagonal'' manner. This method is used by virtually all current
videotape
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
systems and several data tape formats.
Block layout and speed matching
In a typical format, data is written to tape in blocks with inter-block gaps between them, and each block is written in a single operation with the tape running continuously during the write. However, since the rate at which data is written or read to the tape drive varies as a tape drive usually has to cope with a difference between the rate at which data goes on and off the tape and the rate at which data is supplied or demanded by its host.
Various methods have been used alone and in combination to cope with this difference. If the host cannot keep up with the tape drive transfer rate, the tape drive can be stopped, backed up, and restarted (known as
shoe-shining
Shoeshiner or boot polisher is an occupation in which a person cleans and buffs shoes and then applies a waxy paste to give a shiny appearance and a protective coating. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job was traditionally d ...
). A large memory buffer can be used to queue the data. In the past, the host block size affected the data density on tape, but on modern drives, data is typically organized into fixed-sized blocks which may or may not be compressed or encrypted, and host block size no longer affects data density on tape. Modern tape drives offer a speed matching feature, where the drive can dynamically decrease the physical tape speed as needed to avoid shoe-shining.
In the past, the size of the inter-block gap was constant, while the size of the data block was based on host block size, affecting tape capacity – for example, on
count key data
Count key data (CKD) is a direct-access storage device (DASD) data recording format introduced in 1964, by IBM with its IBM System/360 and still being emulated on IBM mainframes. It is a self-defining format with each data record represented by a ...
storage. On most modern drives, this is no longer the case.
Linear Tape-Open
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a syste ...
type drives use a fixed-size block for tape (a
fixed-block architecture
Fixed-block architecture (FBA) is an IBM term for the hard disk drive (HDD) layout in which each addressable block (more commonly, sector) on the disk has the same size, utilizing 4 byte block numbers and a new set of command codes. FBA as a te ...
), independent of the host block size, and the inter-block gap is variable to assist with speed matching during writes.
On drives with compression, the compressibility of the data will affect the capacity.
Sequential access to data
Tape is characterized by
sequential access
Sequential access is a term describing a group of elements (such as data in a memory array or a disk file or on magnetic tape data storage) being accessed in a predetermined, ordered sequence. It is the opposite of random access, the ability to ...
to data. While tape can provide fast data transfer, it takes tens of seconds to load a cassette and position the tape head to selected data. By contrast, hard disk technology can perform the equivalent action in tens of milliseconds (3 orders of magnitude faster) and can be thought of as offering
random access
Random access (more precisely and more generally called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum from a population of addressable elements roughly as easily and efficiently as any othe ...
to data.
File systems
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
require data and metadata to be stored on the data storage medium. Storing metadata in one place and data in another, as is done with disk-based file systems, requires repositioning activity. As a result, most tape systems use a simplified filesystem in which files are addressed by number, not by filename.
Metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
such as file name or modification time is typically not stored at all.
Tape label Tape labels are identifiers given to volumes of magnetic tape.
There are two kinds of tape labels. The first is a label applied to the exterior of tape cartridge or reel. The second is data recorded on the tape itself.
Visual labels
Visual label ...
s store such metadata, and they are used for interchanging data between systems.
File archiver
A file archiver is a computer program that combines a number of files together into one archive file, or a series of archive files, for easier transportation or storage. File archivers may employ lossless data compression in their archive formats ...
and
backup
In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", w ...
tools have been created to pack multiple files along with the related metadata into a single tape file. Serpentine tape drives (e.g.,
QIC) offer improved access time by switching to the appropriate track; tape partitions are used for directory information. The
Linear Tape File System
The Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is a file system that allows files stored on magnetic tape to be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk or removable flash drives. It requires both a specific format of data on the tape media and software ...
is a method of storing file metadata on a separate part of the tape. This makes it possible to
copy and paste
In human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy, and paste are related commands that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface. The ''cut'' command removes ...
files or directories to a tape as if it were a disk, but does not change the fundamental sequential access nature of tape.
Access time
Tape has a long random access time since the deck must wind an average of one-third the tape length to move from one arbitrary position to another. Tape systems attempt to alleviate the intrinsic long latency, either using indexing, where a separate lookup table (''tape directory'') is maintained which gives the physical tape location for a given data block number (a must for serpentine drives), or by marking blocks with a
tape mark
In computing, end-of-file (EOF) is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. The data source is usually called a file or stream.
Details
In the C standard library, the character reading funct ...
that can be detected while winding the tape at high speed.
Data compression
Most tape drives now include some kind of
lossless data compression
Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistic ...
. There are several algorithms that provide similar results:
LZW (widely supported), IDRC (Exabyte), ALDC (IBM, QIC) and DLZ1 (DLT). Embedded in tape drive hardware, these compress a relatively small buffer of data at a time, so cannot achieve extremely high compression even of highly redundant data. A ratio of 2:1 is typical, with some vendors claiming 2.6:1 or 3:1. The ratio actually obtained depends on the nature of the data so the
compression ratio
The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values.
A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...
cannot be relied upon when specifying the capacity of equipment, e.g., a drive claiming a compressed capacity of 500 GB may not be adequate to back up 500 GB of real data. Data that is already stored efficiently may not allow ''any'' significant compression and a sparse database may offer much larger factors. Software compression can achieve much better results with sparse data, but uses the host computer's processor, and can slow the backup if the host computer is unable to compress as fast as the data is written.
The compression algorithms used in low-end products are not optimally effective, and better results may be obtained by turning off hardware compression and using software compression (and encryption if desired) instead.
Plain text, raw images, and database files (
TXT,
ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...
,
BMP,
DBF, etc.) typically compress much better than other types of data stored on computer systems. By contrast, encrypted data and pre-compressed data (
PGP
PGP or Pgp may refer to:
Science and technology
* P-glycoprotein, a type of protein
* Pelvic girdle pain, a pregnancy discomfort
* Personal Genome Project, to sequence genomes and medical records
* Pretty Good Privacy, a computer program for the ...
,
ZIP,
JPEG
JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...
,
MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...
,
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
, etc.) normally ''increase'' in size if data compression is applied. In some cases, this data expansion can be as much as 15%.
Encryption
Standards exist to
encrypt
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
tapes. Encryption is used so that even if a tape is stolen, the thieves cannot use the data on the tape. Key management is crucial to maintain security. Compression is more efficient if done before encryption, as encrypted data cannot be compressed effectively due to the entropy it introduces. Some enterprise tape drives include hardware that can quickly encrypt data.
Cartridge memory and self-identification
Some tape cartridges, notably
LTO cartridges, have small associated data storage chips built in to record metadata about the tape, such as the type of encoding, the size of the storage, dates and other information. It is also common for tape cartridges to have bar codes on their labels in order to assist an automated tape library.
Viability
Tape remains viable in modern data centers because:
#it is the lowest cost medium for storing large amounts of data;
#as a removable medium it allows the creation of an
air gap that can prevent data from being hacked, encrypted or deleted;
#its longevity allows for extended data retention which may be required by regulatory agencies.
The lowest cost tiers of cloud storage can be supported by tape.
High-density magnetic media
In 2002,
Imation received a
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
11.9 million grant from the U.S.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...
for research into increasing the data capacity of magnetic tape.
In 2014,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
and
IBM announced that they had been able to record 148 gigabits per square inch with magnetic tape media developed using a new vacuum thin-film forming technology able to form extremely fine crystal particles, , a tape storage technology with the highest reported magnetic tape data density, 148 Gbit/in² (23 Gbit/cm²), potentially allowing a native tape capacity of 185 TB.
It was further developed by
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, with announcement in 2017, about reported data density of 201 Gbit/in² (31 Gbit/cm²), giving standard compressed tape capacity of 330 TB.
In May 2014,
Fujifilm
, trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals.
The offerings from th ...
followed Sony and made an announcement that it will develop a 154 TB tape cartridge in conjunction with
IBM, which will have an
areal data storage density of 85.9 GBit/in² (13.3 billion bits per cm²) on linear magnetic particulate tape. The technology developed by Fujifilm, called NANOCUBIC, reduces the particulate volume of BaFe magnetic tape, simultaneously increasing the smoothness of the tape, increasing the signal to noise ratio during read and write while enabling high-frequency response.
In December 2020,
Fujifilm
, trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals.
The offerings from th ...
and
IBM announced technology that could lead to a tape cassette with a capacity of 580 terabytes, using
strontium ferrite as the recording medium.
Chronological list of tape formats
See also
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Computer data storage
Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and Data storage, recording media that are used to retain digital data (computing), data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers.
The central pro ...
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Magnetic storage
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is acc ...
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Tape drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability.
...
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Information repository
In information technology, an information repository or simply a repository is "a central place in which an aggregation of data is kept and maintained in an organized way, usually in computer storage." It "may be just the aggregation of data itse ...
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Data proliferation Data proliferation refers to the prodigious amount of data, structured and unstructured, that businesses and governments continue to generate at an unprecedented rate and the usability problems that result from attempting to store and manage that d ...
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Tape mark
In computing, end-of-file (EOF) is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. The data source is usually called a file or stream.
Details
In the C standard library, the character reading funct ...
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Linear Tape-Open
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a syste ...
Notes
References
External links
ISC 35.220.22 Magnetic TapesISC 35.220.23 Cassettes and cartridges for magnetic tapes
{{Audio format
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History of computing hardware
Magnetic devices
Storage media
Tape recording
1951 in computing
1951 in technology
Computer-related introductions in 1951