LTO Ultrium Generations (Key Features and Benefits)

LTO Ultrium Generations

With a well-defined eight-generation roadmap for scalability and growth, LTO Technology is a powerful and adaptable open tape format created to address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments.

Released Generations Include:

Generation 5

With capacity of 3 TB (assuming a 2:1 compression), the latest generation in the LTO family provides data transfer speed of up to 280 MB/s (assuming a 2:1 compression) and adds a new partitioning feature and Linerar Tape File System specification to provide enhanced file control and data management. The LTO Ultrium format generation 5 specifications were made available to licensees in January 2010.

Generation 4

Delivering 1.6TB (2:1 compression) and up to 800 GB native per cartridge, Ultrium format Generation 4 provides data transfer rates of up to 240 MB/second (2:1 compression), the LTO Ultrium format generation specification was made available to licensees in late December 2006.

Generation 3

Featuring capacities of 800 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 400 GB native per cartridge, Ultrium format Generation 3 provides data transfer rates of up to 160 MB/second (2:1 compression) for the third generation of the 8-channel version. Generation 3 licenses became available on July 26, 2004 with products appearing in late 2004.

Generation 2

With a cartridge capacity of up to 400 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 200 GB native, Ultrium format Generation 2 provides data transfer rates of up to 80 MB/second (2:1 compression). Licenses for Generation 2 became available in April 2002 with products appearing in late 2002.

Generation 1

First licensed in 1998, with product appearing in 2000, Ultrium format Generation 1 provides cartridge capacities of up to 200 GB (2:1 compression) and up to 100 GB native with data transfer rates of up to 40 MB/ second (2:1 compression).

Future Generations

The LTO program roadmap calls for the following capacity and performance figures of future generations:

Generation 6

Capacity: Up to 8 TB (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)
Data transfer speed: up to 525 MB/s (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)

Generation 7

Capacity: Up to 16 TB (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)
Data transfer speed: up to 788 MB/s (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)

Generation 8

Capacity: Up to 32 TB (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)
Data transfer speed: up to 1,180 MB/s (assuming a 2.5:1 compression)