History (1994): 500,000th 3480 Cartridge for American Express

American Express, a $10 billion company, has recently received its 500,000th 3480 cartridge in its international data processing center in Phoenix, AZ.

It is probably among the largest users of half-inch 3480 cartridges, according to 3M.

With close to 500MB per 3480 cartridge, the American Express’ rooms in Phoenix hold some 250TB of customer information and internal data.

3M has given American Express a gold imitation 3480 cartridge to acknowledge its continuous utilization of the 3480 technology.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠74, published on March 1994.