Computer History Museum Records Technology History of IBM Magnetic Tape Storage

The Computer History Museum (CHM), an institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society, announced the recording of IBM Magnetic Tape storage technology.

After submersion in 100-feet of salt water for at least 38 days, magnetic tapes from the ill-fated 1986 Challenger space shuttle mission “looked like a piece of brie” cheese and were considered unrecoverable by NASA and its suppliers. How an accidental meeting with IBM engineers and scientists in Tucson led to the recovery of the data is told in one of a series of oral history recordings on tape storage technology made by CHM.

In the late 1970s IBM established Tucson, AZ as its center for tape storage products. Interviews with personnel associated with the introduction of the 3480 cartridge-based system in 1984 and other developments in magnetic tape storage have been transcribed and published on our website herehttp://www.computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/.

Interviews held in Tucson in 2015 with eight former IBM executives resulted in 24-hours of personal reminiscences.

Four sessions cover the history of tape media, products, and industry consortia. One session highlights the technical expertise of the Tucson team that recovered data from the Challenger tape.
• Tape Media$ (CHM catalog number: 102737992)
• Overview of tape products (CHM catalog number: 102737994)
• IBM 3480 tape drive (CHM catalog number: 102738021)
• Linear Tape Open (LTO) Consortium
• Recovery of Challenger disaster tapes (CHM catalog number: 102738025)

Links to these documents are also posted at 1984: Tape cartridge improves ease of use, a page of the online exhibit The Storage Engine: A Timeline of Milestones in Storage Technology.

While essentially invisible even to computer professionals today, this pioneering work led to continued leadership of tape technology in low-cost bulk storage.