For smaller users, the name of the game is still 4MM DDS-5 drives with 36GB
native capacity. Such drives offer capacity, speed, and economy, to thousands of users of small to medium size networks.
The SAIT roadmap currently extends to a fourth-generation drive (SAIT-4), which is expected to feature up to 4TB of
native capacity (10.4TB compressed).
Developed by Tandberg's partner Benchmark Storage Innovations Inc, the new offering delivers the same capacity and performance - a 40Gb
native capacity and a 3Mb/s native transfer rate - as the Tandberg DLT1 tape drive but in a 5.25 inch half-high form factor.
Tape cartridge roadmaps are now projecting 1 terabyte or more of
native capacity and it is imperative that as capacity increases, performance increases accordingly for disk and tape technologies.
Other features include data transfer rates up to 324Gb/hour,
native capacity of 100Gb per cartridge and a remote diagnostics capability.
When configured with 16 drives, the system is scalable from 1TB to 24Tb
native capacity and 21.6Gb/hour to 460.8Gb/hour native performance.
Today, the reverse is true as a single
native capacity tape cartridge can hold the contents of any magnetic disk.
SuperDLT LoaderXpress offers a
native capacity of up to 110Gb/cartridge and a data rate performance of up to 11Mb.
Sony has also expanded on the AIT technology with the release of SuperAIT (SAIT-l), a half-inch single-reel cartridge that boasts a
native capacity of 500GB and will have a WORM version by the end of 2003.
The LibraryPro with Sony's AIT-1 drives will feature a per-module capacity of 20 AIT cartridges and they can be scaled up to nine modules for a maximum configuration of 6.3Tb
native capacity (up to 16.4Tb with compression) and throughput of 259Gb/h (up to 674Gb/h with compression).
The 12GB
native capacity of the DDS-3 format was derived from two key media improvements: a higher-coercivity (1700 oersted vs.