Tape storage firm Exabyte Corp. will ship its first automated libraries with Linear Tape Open-2 drives next month, officials said Thursday.
LTO-2 drives, also called Ultrium, hold up to 200GB of data with up to 40MBps transfer rates, or twice those specifications with 2:1 compression.
Exabyte will use the drives in its entry-level 110L, midrange 221L and high-end Magnum20 libraries, said officials in Boulder, Colo.
The 110L model holds 4TB, using up one drive and 10 slots, and fitting in 5U of rack space. It starts under $10,000 using a SCSI connection.
The 221L holds 8.4TB, using up two drives and 21 slots, also fitting in 5U, and starting under $14,000. It is available with SCSI or 2G-bps Fibre Channel connections.
Magnum20 holds 60TB, using 8 drives and 150 slots, requiring 20U. It starts at $16,499, has four-way partitioning and also connects with either SCSI or 2G-bps Fibre Channel.
Exabytes drives, from IBM, can also read LTO-1 tapes. The LTO-2 specification debuted last year and shipped initially in higher-end products from vendors like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM.
The format also has host speed matching, a 64MB buffer and data protection features, such as a new head design.
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