Fujifilm has launched its new LTO7 data cartridge to cater for the explosion of data following the emergence of 4k and 8k video.
Adhering to the 7th generation LTO Ultrium standards for magnetic tape media, it will offer data transfer at 750 MB/sec. (300 MB/sec. for non-compressed data), and offer a storage capacity of 15.0 TB.
BaFe magnetic particles offer outstanding recording / retrieval performance and increase the capacity of magnetic tape.
Fujifilm was the first in the world to commercialise magnetic tapes using BaFe magnetic particles for enterprise systems in 2011.
In 2012, Fujifilm introduced LTO Ultrium Data Cartridge which employed BaFe magnetic particles Foreseeing the limitations posed on capacity by legacy metal magnetic particles, the prevalent technology at the time.
With LTO7, Fujifilm has further developed its proprietary BaFe magnetic particle technology and NANOCUBIC technology, expanding storage capacity to about 2.4 times that of LTO6 at 15.0 TB for compressed data and making data transfers approximately 1.9 times faster, reaching 750 MB/sec for compressed data.
Compared with LTO5, LTO6 capacity and transfer speed have increased by 1.7 and 1.1 times, respectively.
The increase in performance from LTO6 to LTO7, however, vastly surpasses this gap.
In order to boost the product's storage capacity, Fujifilm has made the magnetic layers thinner, and has reduced minor defects for a better error rate.
In this way, Fujifilm has successfully increased recording density by more than two times compared to LTO6.
Fujifilm's BaFe magnetic particles offer low variance in terms of magnetic properties, offering greater stability, and the ability to reliably store data for over thirty years has been verified.
Fujifilm is engaged in technological development with the aim of further expanding the capacity of magnetic tapes using BaFe magnetic particles.
The micronisation of magnetic particles is a major factor in improving the recording density of magnetic tapes.
By combining proprietary particle formulation design and particle formation processes, Fujifilm has successfully commercialised BaFe magnetic particles that are microscopic in size but at the same time show uniform characteristics with little unevenness.
In April 2015, Fujifilm in cooperation with IBM demonstrated the potential of achieving a data cartridge with 220 terabytes of uncompressed capacity using an advanced prototype of BaFe magnetic particles.
Two-hundred and twenty terabytes is the highest capacity in the world for coated magnetic tape.