March 8th 2007, Singapore – Tandberg Data, a leading global supplier of backup and archiving technologies, today announced the new storage offering based on Linear Tape Open™ (LTO™) Generation 4, offering new levels of performance, capacity and functionality. With 800 GB native capacity, 120 MB/s native transfer rate, data encryption, ADI automation interface and SCSI, SAS or FC host interface, the Tandberg LTO-4 FH is ideal for use in higher end server environments both as a stand alone drive and in automation.

As businesses today are challenged by exponential data growth, limited backup windows, regulatory requirements and limited resources, the need for affordable, reliable and secure archiving solutions continues to grow.

The LTO-4 features encryption capabilities that are designed to enable the LTO tape drive hardware-based writing of encrypted data to the LTO Ultrium tape cartridge, helping to protect the storage and transport of sensitive information.

Capacity, Performance and Features

With performance up to 120 MB/s (native), the LTO-4 drive is 50% faster than LTO Generation 3, and the capacity has doubled from 400 GB (native) to 800 GB (native) per cartridge, offering 1.6 TB with 2:1 compression. The new drive also offers a myriad of features to improve performance, reliability and manageability. Digital Speed Matching, a 256 MB buffer and Dynamic Compression improve performance. Diagnostic routines such as the Statistical Analysis and Reporting System assists in isolating failures between media and hardware and Adaptive Tape Threading protects against failures during cartridge loads by verifying tape speed, the tape spinning wheel and modulates the tape thread by providing tension control. Independent tape loader & threader motors plus positive pin retention ensures that the pin will be retained during a miss-pick. Graceful dynamic braking allows the reel motors to gradually decelerate instead of stopping abruptly during an unexpected power down.

“With the increased need for high capacity and performance archiving solutions, companies need a reliable, safe and cost effective solution”, says Kjell Øyvind Aasene, Vice president of product management at Tandberg Data. “The LTO-4 offers 1.6 TB* of data on a single cartridge, lowering TCO and operating costs. The 128-bit encryption provides users with enhanced security to make sure that personal or sensitive information from, for instance, customers, will not be accessible after theft or accidental loss of media.”

The LTO Ultrium format generation 4 continues to offer WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality that debuted in generation 3 products, providing a cost-effective means for storing data in a non-rewriteable format to help address compliance requirements.

Future proof

The LTO Ultrium format generation 4 provides for drives with backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with the Ultrium format generation 3 cartridges, and backward read capabilities with Generation 2 cartridges, helping to protect the investment customers have made in LTO technology. LTO’s six generation roadmap scales up to 6.4 TB* in a single cartridge with transfer rates of up to 540 MB/s* making it the technology of choice for backup, restore and archiving applications in both stand alone and automated environments for years to come.

*Assuming 2:1 data compression rate