Multichannel Tape Technology Expands Storage CapacityMultichannel Tape Technology Expands Storage Capacity
The new approach enables as many as 10,000 tracks per inch to reside on conventional magnetic particulate tapes using low-cost base films.
A new multichannel write and read tape technology that is capable of dramatically expanding capacity of conventional data storage tape was unveiled at a meeting of the Information Storage Industry Consortium Tape Program Quarterly Technical Review by Imation on Friday.
The new approach enables as many as 10,000 tracks per inch (10 ktpi) to reside on conventional magnetic particulate tapes using conventional low-cost base films.
"To maintain backward compatibility, designers have kept tape formats similar from generation to generation by using the same servo format and channel spans on the recording and playback heads," said Imation's Subodh Kulkarni in a statement. "Without a breakthrough approach to how tracks are written on the tape, conventional, low-cost, substrates are rapidly reaching their limits." Kulkarni is VP of global commercial business, R&D and manufacturing at Imation.
Denis Langlois, a scientist at Imation's Systems Laboratory and a holder of six patents, presented the technical paper at the storage consortium meeting and noted that the new technology is built by combining an amplitude-based servo pattern that places adjacent tracks on tape and a new thin-film recording head technology as well as a multilayer magnetoresistive array for playback.
Imation, which has a long history of developing data storage products for magnetic, optical, flash, and removable hard disks, said the new technology has the capability to store 1.6 Tbytes in a conventional LT04 cartridge.
While the company was touting its technological expertise in storage, it also mounted a new campaign to drive into consumer markets at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. The company has said it wants to expand from its traditional role as a provider of computer tape for businesses to address the consumer market. At CES it promoted its digital photo frames, DVD players, and other products under its recently acquired Memorex division.
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