The Challenges of Magnetic Recording on Tape for Data Storage (The One Terabyte Cartridge and Beyond)

Operating points to achieve Terabyte tape cartridge capacities and beyond drive both linear and track densities to values not perceived possible a few short years ago. The primary contributors to the issues related to these high capacities are the physical and magnetic properties of the tape media itself. The total magnetic moment of the recorded bit, driven by the magnetic coating thickness, dominates the recording process and determines the linear recording density possible. Moving a thin tape at high speeds and the mechanical stability in the cross track direction provide engineering challenges for increasing track densities in combination with many parallel channels for high data rates. These issues and trade offs are the main focus of this paper.