Linear tape servo writing enables increased track density

摘要

Over the last 50 years, areal density has increased an astonishing 10 million times in disk drives, while in tape drives, density has increased by a more modest 100 thousand times. One reason for the disparity is that over much of the past five decades, disk drives have had an active full-time track-following servo, while tape systems have relied ex- clusively on precision tape guiding. Now, however, servo writing technology is also being implemented in linear tape drives, enabling active, track-following servo schemes.