IBM Researchers Set World Record in Magnetic Tape Data Density

The data storage wizards over at IBM have managed to cram a phenomenal amount of data onto magnetic tape.

Squeezing more than 15 times the amount of data that a current-day LTO3 tape stores, they're on track to have an LTO sized cartridge that can hold 8 Terabytes.

That is more than one gigabit per square centimetre (6.67 billion bits per square inch). Unfortunately we're going to have to wait around five years to see this come to fruition, by which time the average desktop harddrive will hold 4-6 squigabytes, and then we'll still be complaining about how little tapes actually hold when we're designing our backup schedules.

Read more at the IBM Press Release