Topic: IBM

Tale of the magnetic tape: 60 years at IBM

Summary: In 1952 IBM solved the problem of using magnetic tape to back up computer-generated data.

By Andy Smith | May 16, 2012 -- 05:14 GMT (22:14 PDT)

Scientists at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, in cooperation with the FUJIFILM Corporation of Japan broke the tape density record in 2010. It recorded data onto an advanced prototype tape, at a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch – about 39 times the areal density of today's most popular industry-standard magnetic tape.

Here, Dr. Evangelos Eleftheriou, IBM Fellow, holds a dual-coat magnetic tape based on barium ferrite (BaFe) particles that were used to demonstrate the world record in areal data density.

Topic: IBM

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12 comments

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Tape is alive and well and living outside the "cloud"

I remember when a tape drive was show as a "Computer" in movies and TV shows.
Still have a "write ring" or two at home.

tspencer@...
16 May, 2012 08:16

Reply Vote
- tape
  
  No ringie no writie.
  
  rayadair@...
  16 May, 2012 08:49
  
  Reply Vote
  - write ring (or not?)
    
    Univac I used rings to inhibit writing. No ring - write OK!
    
    Metal tapes.
    
    jtz@...
    4 June, 2012 20:00
    
    Reply Vote
- Well
  
  Well, for that time computers did look better because they were huge tapes ;)
  Who would get exciting about real computers? :D
  
  Just like today people believe that GUI (any user interface) is the operating system while they don't even see the operating system in action.
  
  Fri13
  16 May, 2012 11:14
  
  Reply Vote
Tape

Still using the Reel 2 Reel tape, They seems to last forever, recorded in the 60's
and still running. John

ka0mow
16 May, 2012 09:27

Reply Vote
I remember it well

used the write rings to play ring toss.

ThereThere
16 May, 2012 10:14

Reply Vote
Tape as Intrmediate Storage

On the IBM 709 (at the UofW in the early '60s) tapes were often used for intermediate storage for large data sorts. I think the main core memory was really small and there were no disks. And all the output went onto tapes including the printouts which were then processed on a 1401.

larrymcg
16 May, 2012 11:51

Reply Vote
COBOL TOS Compiler

All work files (SYSUTx) were on the tapes. I could tell which phase of the compiler was running by which tape drive was jiggling

bertsirote
16 May, 2012 12:45

Reply Vote
Tapes

Had a reason to look into those again for long term storge.
Those are still expensive, I did not see any really large tapes/drives online.
They used to be the thing to have.

MoeFugger
16 May, 2012 14:25

Reply Vote
ibm tapes

For more history than you may want to know, check out the Emerson Pugh books -

IBM's early computers

IBM's 360 and early 370 computer systems

MIT Press

Note also that other companies had a read backwards capability earlier than IBM (actually it was there for the 701/702 tapes, but went away for the 704-705-709 vacuum tube machines, and the later pre-360 7090-7080-14xx-70xx machines with 727 and early 729 drives.

In particular, Honeywell had vacuum capstan drives and superior sort performance in the late 1950's-early 60's.

jtz@...
16 May, 2012 19:54

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saved my butt...

when i was working as a newbie at the U of Chicago on a dictionary project. went in one night, called up a snippet from the dictionary to edit it, and wrote that snippet back to the dictionary--except i replaced the whole damn dictionary with the snippet. i discovered the error the next night. the night super said: "it's gone, finished, can't get it back". it scared me to death (almost). went in the next day and the kinder day supervisor told me to go to the university computer center and BUY a tape and have them restore the dict. from the previous week's university-wide backup. i lost a couple of days work. but: life saved, lesson learned, all homage to those taped backups!

jiagebusen
16 May, 2012 20:31

Reply Vote
Missing history?

Interesting article, but missing a lot of detail from the heyday of tapes. Going from 556 bpi, to 800, 1600, then 6250. My favorite innovation (as an operator back in the day) was the self-loading jackets and drives. I remember splicing them when they broke and putting on the new silver reflector strip. Anybody ever clean a tape drive? Yep, they sure left out the middle of tape history.

dlrooky
17 May, 2012 17:40

Reply Vote