Imation has revealed multi-terabyte native-capacity tape using metal particulate (MP) media and employing the company’s proprietary TeraAngstrom technology. Further underscoring its commitment to metal particulate technology and the LTO, or Linear Tape Open format, Imation claimed that it is the first and only company to date to license the next-generation of Ultrium LTO-5 tape media.

The company said that LTO-5 tape cartridges feature 3.2 TB of compressed storage and data transfer rates of up to 360MB/second and improvements over prior tape generations. Enhancements in servo technology and improved data compression ensure the same length of tape can store more information, allowing data center managers to keep their existing footprints without adding space to accommodate the growth in primary storage.

The company claims that it uses TeraAngstrom technology to create magnetic media with a smoother surface and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), delivering reduced errors and faster transfer rates.

Licensed by the LTO Technology Provider Companies (TPCs) of Hewlett Packard, IBM and Quantum, Imation expects to launch LTO-5 tape cartridges in early 2010.

Subodh Kulkarni, vice president of Imation’s research, development, and engineering, and head of the company’s global commercial business, said: “Imation is excited to announce this important industry milestone – the achievement of multiple terabytes of native capacity on a single MP tape cartridge. Metal particulate media is a proven standard in data storage, and with MP-based LTO-5, we will be almost doubling the capacity of the cartridges.

“Further, LTO-5 tape technology offers a cost-efficient way for businesses to store ever-expanding data, whether for long-term archival or regular backup of active data, given tape’s energy savings and a cost per gigabyte advantages over other methods. We are very pleased to be the first manufacturer licensed for LTO-5.”