Imation Prepares Offering of Multi-Terabyte Magnetic Tape

Imation Corp. announced new multi-terabyte native-capacity tape using metal particulate (MP) media and employing the company's proprietary TeraAngstrom technology.

According to company officials, Imation is involved in Ultrium LTO-5 tape media.

"Imation is excited to announce this important industry milestone - the achievement of multiple terabytes of native capacity on a single MP tape cartridge," said Subodh Kulkarni, vice president of Imation's Research, Development, and Engineering, and head of the company's global Commercial Business. "Metal particulate media is a proven standard in data storage, and with MP-based LTO-5, we will be almost doubling the capacity of the cartridges. Further, LTO-5 tape technology offers a cost-efficient way for businesses to store ever-expanding data, whether for long-term archival or regular backup of active data, given tape's energy savings and a cost per gigabyte advantages over other methods. Imation is leveraging its long-standing heritage in reliable, secure and durable data storage products and expertise in metal particulate media to ensure that this latest generation of LTO media exceeds standards for data protection and delivers the most data in a single, multi-terabyte data cartridge. We are very pleased to be the first manufacturer licensed for LTO-5."

Imation noted LTO-5 tape cartridges offer 3.2 TB of compressed storage and data transfer rates of up to 360MB/second, Imation uses its TeraAngstrom technology to create magnetic media with a smoother surface and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Imation's TeraAngstrom technology is the MP formulation and manufacturing process used to produce ultra-high capacity storage media at Imation's Oakdale, Minn. R&D facility, and in its Weatherford, Okla. manufacturing facility.

Licensed by the LTO Technology Provider Companies (TPCs) of Hewlett Packard, IBM and Quantum, Imation expects to launch LTO-5 tape cartridges in early 2010.

Imation is a global developer and marketer of branded products dealing with digital information.

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