LTO Ultrium 5 announcement

Last week I told you about a webcast next Thursday talking "about a host of new offerings". Well, despite the fact that it's only Monday, I see we already have the first announcements about storage. IBM announces the LTO Ultrium 5 tape and tape drive. Here's a summary of the several announcements about it. Browsing through the announcement for the TS3500 library ('IBM System Storage TS1050 Tape Drive offers an Ultrium 5 Tape Drive for the TS3500 Tape Library - ZG10-0101)', here are the main characteristics :

• Increases maximum data transfer rate, providing to up to 140 MB/sec native as compared to LTO Ultrium 4
• Provides up to 1.5 TB native physical capacity per cartridge (3.0 TB with 2:1 compression) with Ultrium 5 1.5 TB cartridge
• Includes a 8-Gbps Fibre Channel dual-ported interface attachment
• Supports LTO5 media partitioning and self-describing tape
• Supports encryption capabilities and requires IBM Tivoli® Key Lifecycle Manager (TKLM) for encryption key management
• Adheres to LTO specifications
• Mounts in TS3500 Tape Library Model L53 or D53, and in 3584 Tape Library Models L52, L32, D52, or D32

I think that's pretty much following the roadmap for the LTO drive technology.

Planned availability date : April 16, 2010