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Tera Ångstrom
White Paper (PDF)Prepared for terabyte tape
With this proprietary technology Imation is able to achieve the surface smoothness and uniformity required for the increased bit and track density needed to store multiple terabytes on a single cartridge. The cartridges utilizing Tera Ångstrom technology will be in capacities of 400 gigabytes and higher; Imation expects to deliver multi-terabyte cartridges within the decade.
One terabyte is the equivalent of one million megabytes of data, or 16 days of continuously running DVD movies. The drive towards the development of terabyte-capacity tape cartridges is in response to the growing demand for storage-intensive applications, such as data backup, data mining and archiving, for disciplines ranging from geophysics and financial to broadcast and government.
Manufacturing process
Imation Tera Ångstrom technology is based on three proprietary techniques used in the manufacturing process that make possible this new level of data density.
- Impingement process
High-pressure (>10,000 psi) impingement jets force particles against each other, blasting apart the clusters of magnetic particles and separating them into nanometer-size elements which enables magnetic layer uniformity — smaller particle size and more uniform distribution.
- Quiescent drying process
A delicate drying environment that utilizes low air velocity and magnetic coils for extremely precise particle orientation — eliminating coating disturbances and orienting the particles precisely to allow for maximum bit density and storage capacity.
- In-line calendering process
A series of rollers with an ultra-smooth finish that compress the tape surface to achieve surface smoothness measured in Ångstrom units. (An Ångstrom is equal to one tenth of a nanometer or a metric unit of length equal to one 10-billionth of a meter. One sheet of paper is approximately one million Ångstroms thick.) This surface smoothness and uniformity allows for increased bit and track density to deliver higher capacity cartridges.
Play the Flash animation“Imation’s formulation and coating process incorporates
nanometer size needle-shaped magnetic particles uniformly oriented
and processed to achieve Ångstrom level surface smoothness,” Rick
Weiss –vice president of research and development, Imation
Corp.– said.
“This proprietary technology makes it possible to write more data on the surface area of the metal particulate tape media, at the level needed to reach one terabyte and beyond cartridge storage capacities.”
Metal particulate (MP) is the coating technology found in some of the most widely used and rapidly growing data storage tape formats today. Future generations of MP media will provide storage capacities of one terabyte per cartridge and beyond needed to meet the demanding requirements of large scale data storage operations for backup and restore applications, nearline and offline storage, disaster recovery, business continuity planning and data archiving and retrieval.
At its research and development facilities, located in Oakdale, Minn., Imation continues to advance the development of MP media capacity, performance, and pilot production designs that are implemented throughout the company’s manufacturing sites. Today, Imation continues to be the leader of magnetic technology, offering the broadest portfolio of removable data storage products across all market segments, from computers, consumer electronics and small businesses to products for servers, storage networks and enterprise systems.
Download
the Tera Ångstrom White paper (PDF) — 378KB
Download
the Tera Ångstrom Sellsheet (PDF) —1.03MB
Reprint
from Sept. 2004 issue of Buinsess 2.0® - Special Advertising Section
(PDF) —425KB