preview

Magnetic Tape Essay

Decent Essays

VAT reaches the last usable sectors on the disk. 7.6 MAGNETIC TAPE Magnetic tape is the oldest and most cost-effective of all mass-storage devices. First-generation magnetic tapes were made of the same material used by analog tape recorders. A cellulose-acetate film one-half inch wide (1.25 cm) was coated on one side with a magnetic oxide. Twelve hundred feet of this material was wound onto a reel, which then could be hand-threaded on a tape drive. These tape drives were approximately the size of a small refrigerator. Early tapes had capacities under 11MB, and required nearly a half hour to read or write the entire reel. Data was written across the tape one byte at a time, creating one track for each bit. An additional track was added …show more content…

A stream of data is written along the length of the tape until the end is reached, then the tape reverses and the next track is written beneath the first one (see Figure 7.18). This process continues until the track capacity of the tape has been reached. Digital linear tape (DLT) and Quarter Inch Cartridge (QIC) systems use serpentine recording with 50 or more tracks per tape. Digital audio tape (DAT) and 8mm tape systems use helical scan recording. In other recording systems, the tape passes straight across a fixed magnetic head in a manner similar to a tape recorder. DAT systems pass tape over a tilted rotating drum (capstan), which has two read heads and two write heads, as shown in Figure 7.19. (During write operations, the read heads verify the integrity of the data just after it has been written.) The capstan spins at 2,000 RPM in the direction opposite of the motion of the tape. (This configuration is similar to the mechanism used by VCRs.) The two read/write head assemblies write data at 40-degree angles to one another. Data written by the two heads overlaps, thus increasing the recording density. Helical scan systems tend to be slower, and the tapes are subject to more wear than serpentine systems with their simpler tape paths. FIGURE 7.18 Three Recording Passes on a Serpentine Tape FIGURE 7.19 A Helical Scan Recording a. The

Get Access