Sony Unveils High Capacity Storage Tape

Bigger, faster, better. That’s basically how Sony describes its new Linear Tape-Open tape cartridge. The company says it improves upon its previous products to deliver increased storage, higher transfer rates and greater reliability for businesses with critical data storage and archival needs, such as hospitals or financial institutions. The new LTO Ultrium 4 cartridge doubles the storage capacity of the LTO Ultrium 3 tape format, from 800GB to 1.6TB compressed, with higher transfer rates of up to 240MB per second, up from 160MB. To provide continued backward-compatibility, LTO Ultrium 4 format hardware has read-and-write capability with LTO 3 cartridges, and read capabilities with LTO 2 cartridges. The LTO 4 format also features hardware-based encryption capabilities to better protect the storage and transport of sensitive information. Sony’s LTO Ultrium 4 tape cartridge is expected to be available this spring.