What is magnetic tape?

Admin
4 Dec, 2023

Magnetic tape, magnetic drums, and magnetic disks are types of magnetic memory. Which are used as secondary storage devices in computers to store data and information.

In this article, we are going to talk about magnetic tape.

magnetic tape

What is Magnetic tape?

Magnetic tape is the oldest technology for storing data, whose capacity is very high and the price is also very low. Magnetic tape is a thin long narrow strip of plastic coated with a magnetizable material.

magnetic tape

In magnetic tape, only one side of the ribbon is used to store data. 

It is sequential memory which consists of a thin plastic ribbon coated with magnetic oxide to store data. The width of the ribbon ranges from 4 mm to 1 inch.

Reading/writing data in magnetic tape is very slow because it is accessed sequentially. Sequential access means that data cannot be read/written randomly or directly. 

Magnetic tape is a reliable storage device. Whose storage capacity ranges from 100 MB to 200 GB.

Magnetic tape is a non-volatile memory, which means that the data and information stored in it does not get destroyed even when the power supply is turned off, but remains stored permanently. 

Data access is slow in this, hence it is mostly used as backup memory. 

History of Magnetic Tape

Magnetic tape is one of the oldest computer storage media, still in some use today.

The first magnetic tape was used in the UNIVAC_I (Universal Automatic Computer I) computer. Performed in 1951 by Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

The use of magnetic tape boomed with the advent of mainframe computers. Magnetic tape was used to store data in these computers.

When random access memory and other storage devices came on the market, magnetic tapes were replaced with primary storage media and those memories began to be used as primary memory. However, in some industries such as entertainment and science, magnetic tape is used to store large files.

Advantages of Magnetic Tape

  • Magnetic tape can also be used to store large files. 
  • Handling magnetic tape is quite easy and convenient.
  • It can be used to keep copies of disk files. 
  • This is a reusable memory. In this, the stored data can be erased and new data and information can be stored again. 
  • It provides backup.
  • This is a cheap memory which is available in the market at very low prices. 
  • Its storage capacity ranges from 100 MB to 200 GB. 
  • Magnetic tape has a very long life, hence it is used to store such data which we have to keep for a long time. 

Disadvantages of Magnetic Tape

  • The data stored in it cannot be accessed directly.  
  • In this, data is accessed in a sequential manner, which makes searching a bit difficult. 
  • It is a bit slow because the data is accessed sequentially. 
  • It requires a lot of care.
  • It is difficult to update story data in this.
  • For this, a dust-free environment is required. 

Learn More...

Next Post Previous Post
No Comment
Add Comment
comment url