News
Quantum Launches SuperDLT
- By Scott Bekker
- March 06, 2001
Quantum
Corp. has officially launched its successor to the successful DLT line of
tape storage. The SuperDLT drives released yesterday offer the ability to read
both SuperDLT and DLT tapes, making the line an attractive upgrade path for
enterprises with installed DLT assets.
SuperDLT adds an optical tracking system on
the rear side of the tape. A laser, allowing more precise movement of the tape,
reads a band of reflective material, similar to a CD. The tracking systems
enables greater confidence that the correct part of the tape is contacting the
head, so more data can be crammed on the tape. In addition, the tracking system
enables faster searches for data.
SuperDLT features native 110-GB capacity and
up to 220 GB compressed. The drives are able to transfer 11MB per second
uncompressed, which the company says is the fasted transfer time on the market.
Quantum hopes to double capacity and transfer speed on an 18 month to two year
product cycle.
SuperDLT drives have been available since
late last year, but only supported native SuperDLT tapes. The new drives give
administrators to use both SuperDLT and DLT tapes in the same drive. Quantum
officially launches the line with the release of the backward read compatible
drives.
Although Quantum
leads in market share, it was the last tape vendor to release its next
generation product. Exabyte Corp. brought its Mammoth 2 tape system to market
in early 2000, followed by the release of Ultrium by LTO Consortium members in
the fall of 2000. LTO was developed by a group of storage vendors, including
IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Seagate Inc. – Christopher McConnell
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.