1.   Never had new tape heads in.

2.   Fifteen different products are made for six customers, split between magneto-resistive tape heads and MEMS-related products.

3.   That means that upon playback, the tape head has to switch back and forth between channels.

4.   The resulting chips for tape heads are passive, able to sense content needed for hard disk drives.

5.   This means the most sophisticated parts of a videocassette recorder, for example -- the tape heads -- are still made in Japan.

6.   Rick Reed is a tape head who believes in better pitching through technology.