Super DLT's Road to 1 TB
Quantum just put out a technology development roadmap for its DLTtape technology that extends through 2007, and takes DLTtape through four generations. To give you a little background on these gadgets, DLTtape drives use half" wide tape, as opposed to your garden variety 8mm tape. The drives Read and write data in a linear pattern on the tape, with each data track going the entire length of the tape. When the end of the tape is reached, the heads are repositioned to record a new set of tracks, and the tape is again recorded on its whole length, this time in the opposite direction. The process continues until the tape is full. The roadmap takes DLTtape technology to a native capacity of 1.2 teraBytes (2.4 teraBytes compressed) on a single cartridge, with a transfer rate of over 100 MB/s. Quantum says that 1.2 TB of storage capacity is the equivalent of more than 300 digitized feature-length films on one cartridge that is about half the size of a videocassette tape. The first generation Super DLT drive, the SDLT 220, has a per-cartridge capacity of 110 GB and runs at 11 MB/s. In addition to the capacity and speed figures for the four generations of Super DLT drives, Quantum's DLTtape Group outlined other plans for the product line in the roadmap, which include continued backward-read compatibility to each prior generation across when new devices arrive, MTBF ratings exceeding 300,000 hours (versus the current 250,000 hours), and interfaces that include Ultra160 and Ultra 320 SCSI, as well as a Fibre Channel interface. Quantum also says that these DLT gadgets have an installed base of more than 1.65 million, more than 68 million DLTtape media cartridges are on the street, and tens of thousands of Super DLT drives have shipped to date. You can download a copy of the roadmap in PDF format .
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