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Press Release
January 14, 2003: Imation Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Magnetic Tape Technology

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The Future of Tape
Tape is the uncelebrated workhorse of data storage, and a critical element in many organizations' backup and disaster recovery strategies. In this backgrounder, Imation discusses the future of tape technology.

The Future of Tape: Containing the Information Explosion (PDF)


Images & Logos
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Imation logo
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IBM 726 Tape Drive
The IBM 726 tape reader/ recorder (launched in 1953) used oxide-coated, non-metallic tape, approximately a half-inch wide. Information was recorded on the tape in six channels that ran parallel to the length of the tape. A seventh channel on the tape served to check the reading and writing of the other six channels by an odd-number redundancy check. The tape density was 100 bits per linear inch. Tapes could be interchanged between different 726 units. Two 1.200-foot and two 200-foot reels of magnetic tape were furnished as standard.

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Tape Capacity From 1953 to Today
If you were to try to use reel-to-reel computer tape from 1953 to hold the information contained in a single 100 gigabyte LTO Ultrium data cartridge, the stack of reels would be three times the height of the Eiffel Tower!

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More Data on Less Tape – Data Tape Track Density Through the Years
Areal density — the amount of digital information that can be saved on a given part of the physical tape media — has grown dramatically since Imation (when it was a business of 3M Corp.) manufactured the first tape media in 1953. Density on a 1.27 cm wide piece of magnetic tape has gone from 9 tracks 1.1 mm apart in 1953 to 448 tracks only 0.024 mm apart. Those extra tracks mean the difference between the capacity to hold the digital information contained in book and the ability to hold the information contained in an entire library – in a single tape cartridge the size of your hand.

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