Storage Technology Corp, Louisville, Colorado is sure it is onto a winner with its 4400 Automated Cartridge System, and it doesn’t want to let any opportunity slip and enable competitors to catch up. It’s latest innovation is Library Server software that will enable the 4400 to attach to Ethernetworks. The ACSLS Library Server is designed to facilitate the attachment of the 4400 in environments for which it was not originally intended. The company says it has so far shipped over 800 of the units, mostly to IBM mainframe users. ACSLS is a Unix program that runs on a workstation connected to Ethernet via TCP/IP. Each library storage module holds up to 6,000 3480-type tape cartridges, with a storage capacity of approximately 1,200Gb. In the centre of each module is a freestanding robotic assembly that retrieves, mounts and demounts the cartridges. ACSLS has been in customer test since June and is available worldwide this month: the software is $40,000 for the initial li cence, plus $850 a month.
