Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and Seagate Technology Inc have unveiled a new tape architecture that the companies claim will provide the foundation for a new generation of tape storage products. The new technology is called Linear Tape-Open technology, or LTO. It is expected to surpass the current tape capacity and performance benchmarks, at the same time maintaining high data integrity. The new technology is described as an open tape format specification, meaning it will be readily available to all potential manufacturers and, according to its three developers, will offer licenses for the intellectual property at reasonable prices. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Seagate say they developed the technology in an attempt to establish a standard for tape technologies, after recognizing a fragmented array of formats and technologies, which were confusing customers. The companies anticipate tape technology will be used increasingly in corporate data systems. According to Hewlett-Packard’s product marketing manager for LTO products, Bob Conway, the three companies have created a multi vendor tape standard. He said Hewlett-Packard decided it wanted to develop such a technology about two years ago, but wanted to team up with another organization, and it just so happened that IBM and Seagate had both had the same idea. The companies first met in January last year, and since then they have been busy developing the specification. LTO, according to Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Seagate, combines the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi- directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout and error correction code. This in turn ensures maximum capacity, performance and reliability. The technology will be sold in license form to manufacturers who can then use it to develop new, more effective tape storage products. The licenses are available now, and manufacturers can choose from two formats of tape cartridges; Accelis or Ultrim. Accelis has been designed to be used with applications that need to be accessed very fast, such as enquiry and retrieval processes over the internet or corporate intranet. Initially the Accelis format will be able to cope with a capacity of up to 50Gb of compressed data, on a real time cartridge that can deliver transfer rates of between 20Mb and 40Mb of compressed data, a second. Eventually the format will be used in products with access times of under seven seconds. Ultrium is a real time format designed to used for high capacity back up, restore and archive purposes. Manufacturers of the LTO technology using this format, will be able to develop products with a capacity of up to 200Gb of compressed capacity and deliver transfer rates from 20 to 40Mb of compressed data a second. Once the Ultrium format is incorporated into products, users can expect compressed capacities of up to 1.6Tb. Hewlett-Packard’s Conway commented: People have been looking for a high end type technology from more than one source, and we hope that in time we won’t be the only ones involved.
