Tape cassettes are making a comeback but don’t expect to find Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album. The latest tape offering from Sony would be overkill, offering enough storage for 1.3 million copies of the album.
This new cassette format, announced by Sony is aimed at big-data users. It offers storage able to hold up to 185 terabytes of data per cartridge or about 148GB per square inch of tape.
Created with the help of IBM, Sony’s technology allows for tapes that can store the equivalent of 3700 Blu-ray discs.
Analysts at IDC predict that by 2020, global data storage will amount to 40 trillion gigabytes – around 5200 gigabytes per person.
