Tertiary Storage Technologies

In the last chapter, we described a typical computer system storage hierarchy. In this chapter, we describe the workings of tertiary storage, the lowest level of the hierarchy. In Section 1.2, we discuss magnetic tape drive technology, including measurements of tape drive performance. In Section 1.3, we do the same for optical disk technology. We give examples of both magnetic tape and optical disk drive and robot products and describe technology trends. We finish the chapter with a discussion of two more exotic tertiary storage technologies: holographic storage and optical tape