BOULDER, CO — Spectra Logic (www.spectralogic.com) has launched a Linear Tape Open Generation 6 (LTO-6) tape drive pre-purchase program. With general availability of LTO-6 tape drives and media expected in 2012, customers can now join the LTO-6 pre-purchase program and receive LTO-5 drives today for use until LTO-6 drives become available. Once LTO-6 is released, pre-purchase customers will be at the top of the initial shipment list to receive new LTO-6 drives from Spectra.
This program enables customers to make tape library purchases to meet today’s data storage needs while ensuring the investment is future-proofed. For Spectra’s larger libraries, such as the T-Finity, T950, T680, T380 and T200, LTO-6 tape drives will include native 8 gigabit (Gb) fibre channel interfaces that are compatible with existing 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb fibre channel switches and host bus adapters. For the Spectra T50e and T120 libraries, LTO-6 tape drives will come in either 8Gb fibre channel or 6Gb SAS interfaces.
LTO-6 will offer a storage capacity of up to 8TBs compressed/3.2TBs native, which is more than double the capacity of the previous generation. Expected transfer rates are up to 525MBs per second compressed/210 MBs per second native.
LTO-6 drives are designed with backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with LTO-5 cartridges, and backward read capabilities with LTO-4 cartridges. In addition, LTO-6 drives will be fully compatible with Spectra's BlueScale software and features.