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Competition for SSD

Competition for SSD: 1.4 petabytes of data on future magnetic tape

Tape storage technology seemed to be falling short of expectations recently. Now it looks like it’s catching up again – thanks to a new material.

Linear Tape Open (LTO) first appeared on the market in 2000. At that time, the storage media that recorded data as encoded tracks on magnetic tape still had a capacity of 200 gigabytes.

The tapes have now reached their ninth generation and are currently able to record data volumes of 18 terabytes (uncompressed). The technology is a cost-effective way, especially for companies, to preserve critical data reliably and durably.

Image: Data Storage, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Image: Data Storage, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

LTO09 still fell short of expectations

But what sounds like an incredible amount of storage space was initially a disappointment. LTO09 was originally supposed to offer 24 terabytes of space, but could not meet these expectations.

According to a new roadmap presented by the developers IBM, HPE and Quantum at the beginning of September, it should be possible to store a whopping 1,440 terabytes (1.4 petabytes) from the 14th generation, which is expected to appear in 2033/34.

Magnetic storage tapes: New material creates new possibilities

According to Heise Online , this is made possible by coating the magnetic tapes with strontium ferrite (SrFe) instead of barium ferrite (BaFe), which has been used up until now. The first prototypes have already been developed and tested by Fujifilm. The new material is to be used from LTO13.

In contrast to SSD hard drives, whose maximum capacity is currently around 100 terabytes, LTO is also significantly cheaper. While the most expensive SSD medium with a price of 40,000 US dollars causes costs of 2.5 dollars per gigabyte, LTO are only 0.01 dollars per gigabyte.

According to Sam Werner, IBM vice president of storage product management, LTO “provides organizations with a sustainable, reliable and cost-effective solution to protect and store their critical business data.”

Gaming, Security, TechNews

PS5 hacked: modder with surprising discovery

Image: Hacker, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.
Image: Hacker, Free Stock Picture, MorgueFile.com.

After a jailbreak on the Playstation 5 was successful at the beginning of the month, a modder has now published his first finds. They provide clues to the great mysteries of the gaming scene.

A so-called jailbreak describes the state when the settings of a device are “liberated” by a hack and thus become freely accessible and variable. This is exactly what was recently achieved on the Playstation 5 .

Lance McDonald, the modder who achieved this feat, has now dug deep into the game console’s file archive – and discovered some amazing things, as the online magazine Eurogamer reports.

Legendary hoax ring suddenly real

The first thing that the digital treasure hunt brought to light is actually a legendary treasure from the gaming scene. In the files of the Demon’s Soul remake, McDonald found a 3D model of the legendary Chieftain’s Ring.

The supposedly powerful artifact was originally a hoax from fans in the original game. Fake screenshots and eyewitness accounts claimed the item’s existence, leading players to frantically search for the item in-game – even though it never existed.

So that could change in the remake – a friendly wink from the programmers to the fan base.

“Abandoned” a secret “Silent Hill” project?

McDonald’s second find is no less mysterious: he found a file directory for the game “Abandoned” – a survival horror game from the studio Blue Box – which was initially widely announced and then suddenly disappeared from the scene completely. In addition, the developer studio published contradictory statements, which were then deleted.

It is not known whether the strange behavior is a marketing strategy. However, the files contain references to consciously playing with gaming myths. Because in the “Abandoned” folder there is a map called PT2 – an allusion to the never completed “Silent Hill” successor.

“Seems like at some point they planned to have some ‘this is secretly a silent hill project’ bullshit trail up their sleeves,” the modder wrote on Twitter.

With these interesting finds, one can remain curious as to what else McDonald will find in the cracked heart of the PS5.

Computer Chips

Russian processors cannot compete with Intel

The Russian chips are not yet suitable for everyday use in companies, but there is progress.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shown us how fragile our supply chains have become. Many products are sometimes only manufactured in certain regions of the world, which is why microchips have become so rare in the last 2 years. For this reason, too, Russia would like to buy more products from the domestic market.

Therefore, a small technology sector of its own has developed in the country in the past, in addition to software products, the associated hardware should also be “Made in Russia”. The MCST Elbrus-8C processors show that this is not yet the case with processors.

SberTech, the technology division of Russia’s largest bank, has compared the Elbrus-8C with systems with Intel Xeon Gold 6230 and had to realize that the technology is making great strides, but at the same time it is not yet suitable for everyday tasks within the company.

SberTech is not alone in this. Russian chips have already been installed in many places in the past, but when it comes to the critical infrastructure, one is still dependent on companies such as AMD and Intel. In the test field set up by SberTech, the Elbrus-8C failed in 84 percent of the functional test cases, and the chip could not or only partially withstand other tests.

Nevertheless, all hope is not lost. Experts say that although the chip has many disadvantages, it is still possible to work with it. In addition, adjustments in the software can optimize the current behavior and thus get the maximum out of the processor.

Another positive aspect is that such processors already exist, even if the development of new generations still takes far too long. Years can quickly pass before a concept is converted into a finished chip. During this time, companies such as AMD and Intel have long overtaken the progress that was then achieved. So it remains to be seen how chip development “Made in Russia” will progress in the future.

Via Tom’s hardware