Information storage technologies -- Some recent trends and current prospects analysed from the media manufacturer standpoint

Three years after the FERRARA meeting in 1983, the PARMA MRM conference was an opportunity to analyse the current trends of the information storage industry. The impact of the insane competition between media manufacturers during the three last years has now come to a point where this problem also concerns the future of new recording technologies. Factors of merit of modern mass storage systems cannot be based exclusively upon technical criteria. A survey of main trends in magnetic and optical recording is proposed with consideration to some technical and the non technical parameters.