In a teasing announcement, Memorex Telex International NV said that it planned to introduce optical disk-based archiving systems in the fourth quarter of this year. The company’s first offerings will be mainframe-attached optical jukebox systems to replace microfiche in archival applications, and for on-line report management with capacity of 340Gb storage in 15.8 square feet. Key to its success, Memorex reckons, will be software to manage objects of data and provide secure access to the data; creating data indexes and manipulating work queues for individuals accessing data stored on multiple archival media, including optical disk, cartridge tape and magnetic disk. Many storage management functions will be performed by the Memorex Telex Library Management System, already used to manage the company’s automated tape library: the company claims that it is alone in having tape library management software that supports both local and remote robotics, and has the concept of multiple media as well as manual, semi-automated, and full automation management integral to its design. Under test at customer sites, the system goes into acceptance in September with production shipments by year-end.
