Imation - 50 Years of Tape

Time travel
3M Data Storage was formed in the early 1950s to develop storage media for IBM tape drives. In 1996, 3M's Imaging & Information business was spun off to become Imation. Today, Imation is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of magnetic and optical removable data storage media, with more than 250 US patents on data storage media technology!

Join us for a review of some of the major milestones in data storage media technologies:

1952

Delivered world's first computer tape to IBM for use with IBM 726 tape drive

1953

Introduced the world's first computer tape with 1MB capacity

1954

Doubled recording capacity and transfer speed with the introduction of computer tape with densities of 200 BPI

1957

Introduced double-play magnetic tape using a thinner, pre-stretched polyester backing

1967

Introduced first disk packs for use in IBM rigid disk drives

1970

Imation Black Watch™ 700 1/2" computer tape with proprietary back-coating introduced

1971

First 1/4" cartridge introduced

1975

Mini data cartridge developed with Hewlett Packard

1977

Leading supplier of 8" and 5.25" diskettes

1982

First high density 5.25" diskette available

1984

Introduced 3.5" diskettes

1985

First commercial re-writeable magneto-optical disc demonstrated
Introduced commercial CD-ROM media

1986

Introduced a back-coated Black Watch™ IBM 3480-compatible cartridge with 200MB

1988

Introduced 5.25" 650MB ISO Standard Rewriteable Optical Recording media

1991

Introduced first 1.35GB capacity tape with the Magnus™ line of 1/4" data cartridges
Introduced 3490 cartridge co-developed with IBM

1992

SLR data cartridges introduced

1993

Introduced 5.25" 1.3GB 2X magneto-optical rewriteable media

1994

Introduced FlashGard™ weld for 3480 and 3490E cartridge shells establishing new industry standard of a stronger, break-resistant cartridge

1995

3590 tape cartridges co-developed with IBM
Travan 1, 2, & 3 introduced as new storage initiatives for smaller businesses and entry level applications

1996

Introduced SD-3 half-inch tape cartridges for StorageTek RedWood Tape Servers

1998

Introduced Black Watch™ 9840 tape cartridge co-developed with StorageTek

1999

9490 EE tape cartridge co-developed with StorageTek
DVD-RAM added to Imation line

2000

3590E tape cartridge co-developed with IBM
9940 1/2" MP tape co-developed with StorageTek

2001

Introduced Black Watch™ Generation 1 LTO/Ultrium™ Tape Cartridges
Introduced Black Watch™ DLTtape™ Cartridges
Black Watch™ DLTtape introduced with less abrasivity and higher durability than ANSI and ECMA standards

2002

Introduced Travan™ 40GB in partnership with industry leading OEMs including Seagate, IBM, and Dell
Introduced Black Watch™ Super DLTtape™ Cartridges
Four plants operational producing media in Tucson, Camarillo, Wahpeton and Weatherford
Expanded DVD portfolio to include all formats
Imation DataPlay™ digital media launched

Expect Imation to lead in innovation for years to come!