The Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Program Technology Provider Companies -- HP, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation -- today announced that Fujifilm Corporation, Hitachi Maxell Ltd., Imation Corporation, Sony Corporation, and TDK Corporation have completed interchange testing for LTO Ultrium format generation 6. The successful completion of this testing now permits these companies to use the LTO Ultrium generation 6 format trademarks on their LTO technology products.

“Some of the most prominent names in the industry continue to provide their support for the LTO Ultrium tape format,” said Robert Clark, SVP Data Protection Group, Quantum Corporation. “This is attributed to the fact that the LTO Ultrium format is the data protection tape technology of choice. For more than a decade, LTO Ultrium tape has been protecting the most vital data and content for industries in and around the globe including media and entertainment, medical, finance, distribution, federal and analytics.”

The LTO Program requires that all licensees pass a series of verification testing involving rigorous data interchangeability requirements prior to using the LTO Ultrium trademarks. Testing of a manufacturer’s LTO products is performed annually to confirm that it is adhering to the LTO Ultrium format specifications. Buyers seeking Ultrium format products look for the LTO Ultrium format trademark logo on both tape drives and data cartridges when reviewing backup and archiving solutions.

Announced earlier this year, LTO-6 specifications support tape cartridge storage compressed capacity of up to 6.25TB*, more than twice the compressed capacity over the previous generation, and tape drive data transfer rates of up to 400MB* per second for over 1.4 terabytes of storage performance an hour per drive. As with previous generations, LTO-6 drives will provide backward compatibility with the ability to read and write LTO generation 5 cartridges and read LTO generation 4 cartridges, helping to preserve media investments and ease implementation.

In addition, the LTO Ultrium generation 6 format includes partitioning functionality, enabling users to present a tape-based file system with the use of the Linear Tape File System (LTFS). LTFS takes advantage of the partitioning feature that became available with LTO Ultrium Generation 5 technology to provide file system access to tape data and easier management such as “drag and drop” and search functionality. The LTFS specification is an open specification and has been provided to the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) for industry adoption and standardization.

How to License LTO Ultrium Technology

The LTO Program has historically offered several different license packages – from enhanced packages that provide the specifications and licenses to manufacture LTO Ultrium products, to basic packages providing LTO format specifications.

Buyers seeking LTO Ultrium format products should look for the LTO Ultrium format compliance verification trademarks on both tape drives and data cartridges. Storage and media manufacturers interested in licensing LTO formats may obtain information by contacting the LTO Program through www.ultrium.com/contact.php.

About Linear Tape-Open (LTO)

The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and continuously enhanced by technology providers HP, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corp. (and their predecessors) to help address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. This ultra-high capacity generation of tape storage products is designed to deliver outstanding performance, capacity and reliability combining the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi-directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout, and error correction.

The LTO Ultrium format has a well-defined roadmap for growth and scalability. The roadmap represents intentions and goals only. There is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. Format verification is vital to meet the free-interchange objectives that are at the core of the LTO Program. Ultrium tape mechanism and tape cartridge interchange specifications are available on a licensed basis. For additional information on the LTO Program, visit www.trustlto.com and the LTO Program Web site at www.ultrium.com.

* Assuming a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives.

Note: Linear Tape-Open, LTO, the LTO logo, Ultrium, and the Ultrium logo are trademarks of HP, IBM and Quantum in the US and other countries.