density

Recording density refers to storage media such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disks or memory chips. It indicates how many storage elements are available on a given storage area.

The recording density, also referred to as bit density or storage density, is specified in bits per area or bits per length (inches) and depends on the storage density of the storage medium, the magnetic tape, diskette or optical storage, on the recording method and the read/write heads, which have a direct influence on the number and width of the recording tracks.

In the case of magnetic tapes, the recording density is replaced by the track density, which is specified in tracks per inch( tpi).