Remarkable IBM White Paper Comparing Areal Density on HDD, SSD and Tape

Don’t forget to read this excellent white paper and click on:
Tape Based Magnetic Recording: Technology Landscape Comparisons with Hard Disk Drive and Flash Roadmaps
Areal density growth rate scenarios for three storage class memory technologies, tape, HDD and NAND, have been described. These scenarios suggest that tape annual areal density growth rates will be either maintained at traditional 40% values or exceed traditional growth rates and approach 80% values. These scenarios also suggest that HDD and NAND annual growth rates will not maintain the traditional 40% values and will rather slow to 20% values. Essentially, the tape bit cell is 300X to 500X larger than the HDD and NAND bit cells and hence scalable to smaller areas without being impacted by nano-technology issues related to lithography and bit stability. The net result of these areal density scenarios is volumetric and total capacity storage advantages for tape technology over HDD and NAND technologies.