Barium Ferrite (BaFe) offers greater capacity, superior performance, and longer archival life compared to legacy metal particle (MP) tape.
Fujifilm researchers in conjunction with IBM, have achieved a new world record in areal data density of 123 billion bits per square inch on linear magnetic particulate tape. This breakthrough equates to a single tape cartridge capable of storing up to 220 terabytes of uncompressed data.
- BaFe enables greater areal density resulting in tapes with much higher capacity
- BaFe particles can be greatly reduced in size while maintaining strong magnetic characteristics
In January 2010, Fujifilm and IBM announced a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape of 29.5 billion bits per square inch using BaFe particles. This demonstrated the potential of a high capacity tape cartridge capable of storing 35 Terabyte of uncompressed data.
- BaFe achieves a lower error rate and better margin against hard errors
- BaFe has higher SNR on both new and worn drive heads
High signal-to-noise ratio of BaFe ensures maximum performance even when natural head wear occurs. Users can expect longer head life when using BaFe tape.
- In accelerated life tests, BaFe shows no loss of magnetic signal
- Based on its chemical stability, archivability of BaFe proves to be over 30 years
- MP shows a slight degradation in magnetic signal over 30 years although not detrimental to read/write performance
Accelerated life test measures the change of tape’s magnetic property under temperatures of 60 degrees celsius, and humidity of 90%, where one day under such an environment corresponds to one year in ambient conditions.