This tiny tape cartridge can hold 330 terabytes of Data.
IBM and Sony developed a new magnetic tape capable of storing 201 gigabits of data/square inch, translating roughly 330 terabytes of information in a palm-sized cartridge.
This is made possible by an lubricant layer built-in inside the tape, which keeps it running smoothly through the machine and a new type of magnetic layer. Sony used sputter deposition, a technology used by the semiconductors and hard drive industries for decades to lay down thin films. Benefits of sputtering is that it produces magnetic tape with magnetic grains that are just few nano meters across, rather than tens or hundreds of nano meters in case of commercially available tape.
For a comparison, the world’s largest hard drives- which are about twice the physical size of Sony tape cartridge are the 60TB seagate SSD or 12TB HGST helium-filled HDD. The largest commercially available tapes only stores 15TB.
