Speaker
Description
High-Performance Computing (HPC) has become a critical tool in scientific research, engineering, AI training, and more. Some of the main challenges of HPC in data storage are handling massive data volumes, ensuring long-term data integrity and security, reducing the floor space and the carbon footprint.
HPC applications generate petabytes of data, requiring high-capacity storage solutions. HPC data centres consume significant power, creating a need for storage solutions that are energy-efficient to reduce costs and cooling requirements.
Fujifilm as worldwide leading manufacturer of magnetic tapes, used primarily for data archiving, works tirelessly to constantly improve the intrinsic characteristics of tape storage solutions, such as file lifespan, high security levels achieved by disconnecting stored data from the network, high data integrity, low cost per TB, higher recording densities, reduced environmental footprint, and much more.
Fujifilm continues to contribute actively to the development of an unprecedented wave of innovations applied to tape storage solutions, such as new tape coating processes using Nanocubic technology combined with Barium Ferrite (BaFe) and Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) particles, major advances in the field of electromagnetic power, and new read/write heads capable of absorbing potential variations in the dimensions of the magnetic tape developed by IBM, to name but a few.
At the end of 2023, the launch of IBM's Enterprise 3592JF tape with the TS1170 drive, marked a new milestone by being able to store a native capacity of 50 terabytes on a single data cartridge. This was the first tape to combine Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) technology with Barium Ferrite (BaFe) technology in its manufacture.
The latest generation of Fujifilm LTO tape launched on the market last June, LTO-10, incorporates these “fine hybrid magnetic particles” developed by combining nanoparticle design technologies used in both “Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) magnetic particles” a next-generation magnetic material, and “Barium Ferrite (BaFe) particles” currently used in high-capacity data storage tapes, and has adopted this material for the first time in the “LTO Ultrium” series. By further reducing the particle size of the magnetic material and improving its magnetic properties, Fujifilm has increased the areal recording density of magnetic tape by approximately 1.7 times compared to current products. Achieving a native capacity from 30 terabytes per LTO-10 tape.
Strontium Ferrite and its integration with Barium Ferrite in fine hybrid magnetic particles, underpins a new era of density, stability, and longevity. The combination of these Fujifilm tape coating technologies allows this level of high recording density to be achieved while maintaining the stability of the magnetic properties of the particles to ensure that the written data can be read for more than three decades.
The continuous evolution of tape is made possible by innovations in core materials. Fujifilm's commitment to finding alternative materials that can increase tape recording density while also offering higher performance led to the use of Barium Ferrite (BaFe) particles with superior magnetic properties to the Metal Particles (MP) technology used previously, which reached its capacity limit at 2.5TB native per tape.
First-generation BaFe particles, with a particle size 50% smaller than the smallest MP particles, were sufficient to manufacture 6TB native data cartridges, while second-generation BaFe particles, which are 10-15% smaller, enable the manufacture of tapes with native capacities of 18TB.
The use of Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) particles, which are up to 60% smaller than BaFe particles but have superior magnetic properties, allows the storage of 580TB native data on a single data cartridge. As demonstrated at the end of 2020 in the latest tape-recording record, the fifth since 2006, which enabled the roadmap for LTO technology to be extended to its fourteenth generation.
Increasing the recording density on magnetic tapes poses major challenges for manufacturers. We will analyse the challenges we must overcome to ensure recording stability and long-term data readability, such as greater precision of the read/write head on increasingly narrow data tracks. We will review the advanced features of Enterprise tape technology that have been incorporated into the latest generations of LTO tape technology, such as oRAO, which reduces access time to multiple files recorded on the same tape by defining the optimal file access path, or hrRAO, which divides the tape into 128 segments using HRTD (High Resolution Recommended Access Order) to locate and retrieve files more quickly and efficiently, thereby speeding up data access.
These breakthroughs unlock higher storage densities on a single tape, dramatically extend the lifespan of the drives, and ensure that the most critical information stays preserved and accessible—even under demanding environmental conditions. Offering great peace of mind to users and demonstrates the great development potential of tape technology, which already has prototypes capable of meeting the storage needs into the next decades.
| Desired slot length | 20 minutes |
|---|---|
| Speaker release | Yes |