Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic tape can with relative ease record and play back audio, visual, and binary computer data.
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic-tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette recorders (VCRs) and camcorders. Videotapes have also been used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram.
Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence. Ampex operates as Ampex Data Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Delta Information Systems, and consists of two business units. The Silicon Valley unit, known internally as Ampex Data Systems (ADS), manufactures digital data storage systems capable of functioning in harsh environments. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, unit, referred to as Ampex Intelligent Systems (AIS), serves as a laboratory and hub for the company's line of industrial control systems, cyber security products and services and its artificial intelligence/machine learning technology.
GlassBridge Enterprises, Inc., formerly Imation Corporation, is an American holding company. Through its subsidiary, Glassbridge focuses primarily on investment and asset management.
In computer data storage, partial-response maximum-likelihood (PRML) is a method for recovering the digital data from the weak analog read-back signal picked up by the head of a magnetic disk drive or tape drive. PRML was introduced to recover data more reliably or at a greater areal-density than earlier simpler schemes such as peak-detection. These advances are important because most of the digital data in the world is stored using magnetic storage on hard disk or tape drives.
Memorex Corp. began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become both a consumer media supplier and a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after 1996 other than as a consumer electronics brand specializing in disk recordable media for CD and DVD drives, flash memory, computer accessories and other electronics.
In 1953, IBM recognized the immediate application for what it termed a "Random Access File" having high capacity and rapid random access at a relatively low cost. After considering technologies such as wire matrices, rod arrays, drums, drum arrays, etc., the engineers at IBM's San Jose California laboratory invented the hard disk drive. The disk drive created a new level in the computer data hierarchy, then termed Random Access Storage but today known as secondary storage, less expensive and slower than main memory but faster and more expensive than tape drives.
Magnetic-tape data storage is a system for storing digital information on magnetic tape using digital recording.
Irwin Magnetic Systems, Inc., also known as Irwin Magnetics, was a computer storage manufacturer active from 1979 to 1989 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was founded by Samuel Irwin in 1979 as Irwin International, Inc. The company's primary export was magnetic tape data storage and backup systems for personal computers. Irwin was one of the first companies to manufacture quarter-inch cartridge (QIC) systems for the personal computer market. In 1989, the company was acquired by Cipher Data Products.
Graham Magnetics, Inc., was an American computer data storage company independently active from 1964 to 1995. Founded as Datatape, Inc., by 1966, it had opened its new magnetic tape factory in Graham, TX and changed its name to Graham Magnetics. Until the 1980s, Graham's primary product was half-inch, open-reel magnetic tape. Graham was the last manufacturer of open-reel 9-track tape, but ceased production at the end of 2001. Currently, as of 2007, Graham Magnetics buys used tape cartridges and reconditions them for reuse.
Priam Corporation was a company located in San Jose, California, founded in 1978 by William Schroeder and Al Wilson, two former Memorex executives, as a manufacturer of hard disk drives. Originally, they made high-capacity 14-inch drives, developed for mainframe computers, available for minicomputers and high-end workstations, but switched to 8-inch disk drives in 1980.
CPT Corporation was founded in 1971 by Dean Scheff in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with co-founders James Wienhold and Richard Eichhorn. CPT first designed, manufactured, and marketed the CPT 4200, a dual-cassette-tape machine that controlled a modified IBM Selectric typewriter to support text editing and word processing.
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a thin and flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a rectangular plastic carrier. It is read and written using a floppy disk drive (FDD). Floppy disks were an almost universal data format from the 1970s into the 1990s, used for primary data storage as well as for backup and data transfers between computers.
Sirjang Lal Tandon also known as "Jugi" Tandon, was born in India c. 1942. He is chairman and CEO of Celetronix, Inc. He is known for leading his company, Tandon Corporation in the disk drive industry, creating what became the industry-standard double-sided floppy drive disk read-and-write heads.
Information Control Systems was a computer programming and data processing company serving clients in the Midwestern United States.
Terry Johnson was an engineer and entrepreneur notable for his work on hard disk drives (HDD). Johnson's early career included engineering and management roles in magnetic recording at IBM (1964–70) and Memorex (1971–73). He then joined in the development of STC 8000 Super Disk, a high-end rotary actuator HDD funded by StorageTek.
Data Disc, Incorporated, was a public American computer hardware company active from 1962 to 1977 and based in Silicon Valley. The company primarily manufactured hard disk drive units for mainframes and minicomputers. The company also manufactured specialized analog hard disk drives that stored video information for scientific organizations such as NASA as well as the television industry. Data Disc also produced graphical terminals and data tape drives, the latter under their subsidiary Bright Industries, Inc.. In 1976, the company changed their name to Amcomp, Inc., and in 1977, they were acquired by Datapoint.
Caelus Memories, Inc., was an American computer hardware company active from 1967 to 1985 and based in San Jose, California. The company focused on the manufacturing of magnetic data storage media, primarily disk packs. For a time, it was the second-largest manufacturer of disk packs in the world, designing units plug-compatible with IBM and Univac mainframes. In 1969, Caelus was acquired in whole by Electronic Memories & Magnetics; the latter was later acquired by Titan Systems in 1985.
