Storage Technology Corp this week previewed the innovative tape storage devices on which it is pinning its hopes for the future. It reckons the hottest is RedWood, a high-capacity, high-performance mass storage cartridge subsystem that employs helical-scan technology to store up to 100 times more data per cartridge than the half-inch, IBM 3480-compatible cartridges used in current libraries. It will use housing similar to the 3480 cartridge and be compatible with all libraries, but will not make it to market until 1994. In the meantime, PowderHorn will be the next-generation 4400 Automated Cartridge System with new high-performance robotics at a cost related to performance. PowderHorn will be upgradable from 4400 ACS serial number 1 and will have higher throughput: it’s due in 1993. TimberWolf and WolfCreek are lower-capacity, lower-cost robotic subsystems, holding approximately 500 and 1,000 cartridges, respectively, and upgradable in increments of 500 – and TimberWolf will be field upgradable to WolfCreek with a maximum capacity of about 16,000 cartridges. Those are also set for 1993, as is TimberLine, expected to be the fastest and highest-performing cartridge subsystem in the world. It will be a 36-track compatible cartridge subsystem and use longer tapes, and will use the architecture planned for the Redwood helical program. Silverton is a cartridge-tape system for IBM-compatible recording with compression and compaction standard and an upgrade path to 36 tracks and IBM’s Escon channel, planned for next year or 1993. And Clipper is an enhanced cartridge access port for the 4400 ACS that enables 80 cartridges – against the present 21 – to be entered or ejected, retrofittable on all 4400s and out in 1992.
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