New US storage vendor Benchmark Tape Systems Corp will tomorrow launch a tape drive using DLTtape IV media from Quantum Corp and offering, it claims, the power of DLT at the price of DDS. Mike Befeler, marketing and business development vice-president of the Boulder, Colorado-based company, explained that it was founded in May last year, after Quantum decided to spin off its low-end DLT business via a licensing agreement, in order to concentrate its efforts on the high-end segment. As a result, Benchmark got the technology and a capital injection from Quantum, which holds an unspecified minority stake in the company.
Befeler explained that Benchmark is now launching what would have been the second product on Quantum’s product roadmap for its DLT 4000 tape drive. Its product, the Benchmark DLT IV drive, will read content created on a DLT 4000, as well as reading and writing on an improved format of the standard tape.
In capacity terms, Benchmark’s debut product boasts 48 Gigabytes native, which Befeler reckons to be a considerable advantage vis-a-vis DDS 4, the latest generation of DDS tape currently available only from Sony, with a capacity of 20 Gigabytes. The Benchmark drive will sell for $1,299, putting it into the same price bracket as DDS 4, he went on.
Benchmark will be pursuing four channels, namely: system OEMs, library OEMs, 2-tier distribution and storage VARs. Among the first OEM agreements is with Advanced Digital Information Corp of Seattle, Washington, with whom the company has a reciprocal deal to OEM its autoloader.
Other OEM deals to be announced this week will include ones with Canoga Par, California-based Qualstar Corp and Breece Hill Technologies Inc, also from Boulder Colorado.
