Diana J. Hellman

Scaling tape-recording areal densities to 100 Gb/in 2

We examine the issue of scaling magnetic tape-recording to higher areal densities, focusing on the challenges of achieving 100 Gb/in2 in the linear tape format. The current highest achieved areal density demonstrations of 6.7 Gb/in2 in the linear tape and 23.0 Gb/in2 in the helical scan format provide a reference for this assessment. We argue that controlling the head-tape interaction is key to achieving high linear density, whereas track-following and reel-to-reel servomechanisms as well as transverse dimensional stability are key for achieving high track density. We envision that advancements in media, data-detection techniques, reel-to-reel control, and lateral motion control will enable much higher areal densities. An achievable goal is a linear density of 800 Kb/in and a track pitch of 0.2 µm, resulting in an areal density of 100 Gb/in2.

Six orders of magnitude in linear tape technology: The one-terabyte project

For the last 50 years, tape has persisted as the media of choice when inexpensive data storage is required and speed is not critical. The cost of tape storage normalized per unit capacity (dollars per gigabyte) decreased steadily over this time, driven primarily by advances in areal density and reduction of tape thickness. This paper reports the next advance in tape storage--a demonstration of a tenfold increase in capacity over current-generation Linear Tape-Open® (LTO®) systems. One terabyte (1 TB, or 1000 GB) of uncompressed data was written on half-inch tape using the LTO form factor. This technical breakthrough involves significant advances in nearly every aspect of the recording process: heads, media, channel electronics, and recording platform.