185 TB on a cassette? Sony says so

[earmonger]

Ok, this is insane. Sony claims to have reinvented magnetic tape with some nano-grained magnetic layer that could put 185TB on a cassette.  And it's not April Fool's Day.

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201404/14-044E/index.html

[audBall]

"Recording density of 148 Gb/in^2"

I'd say that's pretty dense.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

I can't see this as being priced for "consumer use."

A 5 TB tape (or other media) would be PLENTY for me.

I'd say most of us would be considered WELL above average in the amount of data we own. Most of my friends I talk to tell me they have a 1TB drive in their computer and it's at the most 1/3 full.

Something like this seems like it would be handy for us:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/178166-1tb-per-disc-sony-and-panasonic-team-up-on-next-gen-blu-ray

I'd love to have some media that I could back up ALL of my shows to and mail a few off to various friends and put in the safe deposit box for back up purposes. For now I have a 2TB drive that lives in my safe deposit box for backup.

[aaronji]

^^^ Definitely not for the typical consumer.  But it would be very nice for my work.  We generate huge amounts of data and it is backed up to miles of tape for long-term storage...

[kindms]

^^^ Definitely not for the typical consumer.  But it would be very nice for my work.  We generate huge amounts of data and it is backed up to miles of tape for long-term storage...

yup.

Those tapes ain't cheap either

[anr]

Is this a clever way around this problem, which IIRC in olden days was one reason for drop outs on tape, because achieving a uniform size of particle was very difficult and very expensive?   Manufacturers had to compromise and go for a larger average size, which affected high frequency response, but lowered cost.  Memory fades, but it was something like that. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superparamagnetism