Tape was just the beginning…
Tape has been a part of data storage for so long, it’s easy to take it for granted. Yet, it’s been 50 years since the first commercially available magnetic tape was pioneered by IBM and 3M. The year was 1952. And the product was the Model 726 tape drive, which used a 12″ movie reel to store 1.4 megabytes on a special tape media. It was the first truly removable storage media a breakthrough that ushered in a new era of information processing.
Tape is a core part of every organization’s storage infrastructure. Bulky tape reels have become hand-sized cartridges of half-inch tape that each can hold hundreds of gigabytes, often handled by automated libraries. Tape has been joined by a variety of removable media formats that help businesses and consumers save, preserve and share digital information including magnetic floppy diskettes and optical CD and DVD discs.
And that 3M storage division? Imation Corp. established in 1996. Imation is using its unique blend of expert magnetic media and systems design, manufacturing excellence, and in-depth experience to help drive makers develop storage platforms for tomorrow’s business networks and consumer devices.
