LTO Program Announces Availability of Ultrium Licenses

SILICON VALLEY, CALIF.: The Linear Tape-Open Program Technology Provider Companies--HP, IBM and Quantum--announced the availability of licenses for the LTO Ultrium Generation 6 format.

Although the LTO Ultrium Generation 6 format is still in development, the TPCs have provided the opportunity for licensees to gain insight on the emerging tape specification through a series of regular discussions surrounding its development. This visibility into the specification is intended to enhance licensee product development programs.

Plans for specifications for the Generation 6 tape cartridge include capacity of up to 8 TB, almost triple the capacity over the previous generation, and tape drive data transfer rates of up to 525 MB per second. Also included are features from previous generations of the LTO Ultrium format, such as encryption to help protect data in transition, Write Once Read Many support to help address data security and compliance needs, as well as the dual partitioning feature, introduced in Generation 5, which when utilized by the Linear Tape File System specification can help provide faster data access and improve data management.

“LTO technology’s latest advancement was developed with the understanding that tape-based archiving continues to be a critical component of clients’ overall storage strategy,” said Chris Powers, director of Nearline Solutions, HP. “LTO Generation 6 enables vendors to deliver storage solutions with performance benefits as well as increased data capacity.”

Plans for LTO Ultrium 6 drive specifications include backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with LTO Ultrium 5 cartridges, and backwards-compatible read capabilities with LTO Ultrium 4 cartridges, helping to protect investments and ease implementation.

The LTO Program offers several different license packages--from enhanced packages that provide the specs and licenses to manufacture LTO Ultrium products, to basic packages providing LTO Ultrium format specifications.