According to Fujifilm, the use of its LTO tapes has increased in Australia during the last year despite – or perhaps because of – the challenging times.
The volume of data continues to grow, driven in part by big data and IoT projects, and backup must keep up one way or another.
Fujifilm points to work carried out at the University of Tokyo's department of chemistry that could lead to magnetic tapes with 10 times the current capacities within five to 10 years.
Professor Shin-ichi Ohkoshi and his team (which includes Masashi Shirata and Hiroaki Doshita of Fujifilm's recording media R&D laboratories) have developed a magnetic material and an associated process that promises greater storage density and durability, with lower power consumption.
"Our new magnetic material is called epsilon iron oxide, it is particularly suitable for long-term digital storage," said Ohkoshi. "When data is written to it, the magnetic states that represent bits become resistant to external stray magnetic fields that might otherwise interfere with the data. We say it has a strong magnetic anisotropy. Of course, this feature also means that it is harder to write the data in the first place; however, we have a novel approach to that part of the process too."
When high-frequency millimetre waves (30-300GHz) are directed at epsilon iron oxide, an external magnetic field causes the material's magnetic direction to flip. Once the section of tape moves away from the recording head, the magnetic state is locked in until the tape is re-recorded.
"This is how we overcome what is called in the data science field 'the magnetic recording trilemma,'" said project assistant Professor Marie Yoshikiyo. "The trilemma describes how, to increase storage density, you need smaller magnetic particles, but the smaller particles come with greater instability and the data can easily be lost. So we had to use more stable magnetic materials and produce an entirely new way to write to them. What surprised me was that this process could also be power efficient too."
Ohkoshi added "Although the experiments were very difficult and challenging, the sight of the first successful signals was incredibly moving. I anticipate we will see magnetic tapes based on our new technology with 10 times the current capacities within five to 10 years."
Other potential uses for epsilon iron oxide may be found in future mobile communications devices, because the frequencies it absorbs well are likely to be used in post-5G services.
