Magnetic tape: A high performer: Magnetic tape has evolved into a highly effective medium for high-density and low-cost-per-bit data recording

Low cost is the underlying reason for the continued popularity of magnetic tape. Still the least expensive recording medium available for applications such as instrumentation, its present per-bit price range of 10
⁻⁴
–10
⁻⁶
cents (for access times ranging from 10 ms to 100 seconds) — coupled with the high recording densities the tape is capable of providing — also makes it an extremely attractive and practical storage medium. However, although today's magnetic tape for analog- and digital-signal storage may look much the same, and work on the same principle, as its earliest predecessor did some 40 years ago, steady and important improvements have been realized in its performance.