As well as offering its 3495 robotic tape storage system, IBM Corp has picked up an even bigger device for the open systems market, doing a deal with the Storage Systems Solutions arm of E-Systems Inc, Dallas for its Emass mass storage system, which is able to store up to 10 Petabytes – 10,000 Terabytes. It is IBM’s Dallas-based Technology Consulting & Services – North America group, also in Dallas, that has done the deal. The collaboration will connect IBM’s RS/6000 to the E-Systems Emass syst-em to create a combination capable of delivering up to 10Pb of data to engineering, scientific and other commercial users of massive amounts of data, at the price performance of a workstation. Emass is a 19mm helical scan tape device developed with help from Ampex Corp, Redwood, California, and it requires just six tape cassettes to store 1Tb. The four-arm Emass robot was developed with Odetics Corp, Anaheim, California. Emass starts at $685,000 (CI No 1,834).
