And You Thought Tape Drives Were Extinct – Fujifilm Packs 5TB Onto New Cartridges

This news isn’t really… applicable to many of our readers, I think, but it’s still cool. The tape drives used as archival backup systems for many companies are the last thing that occurs to people when they think of cutting-edge technology, but the truth is that as long as there is an infrastructure and companies relying on the tech, it’ll keep on being supported. And the latest advance comes from Fujifilm, who in the latest generation of tape cartridges has managed to quintuple capacity.

Yes, the new T10000C drives hold up to 5TB each, owing to a new BaFe (Barium-Iron) coating that they apply “thinly and lubricously.” What that means I will leave to your imagination. They’re being made for Oracle, who uses them in their enterprise server and datacenter systems. Not stuff you see every day, but probably stuff you’re indirectly accessing more than you think.

At any rate, I just wanted to say hell yeah, love the magnetic tape. Keep it up, old-school storage guys.

[via Tech-On and Computing.co.uk]