• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • LTO 5 Speed, Capacity Lower Than Expected

    January 26, 2010 Alex Woodie

    New specifications were released last week for the fifth generation of the Linear Tape-Open (LTO), and it’s not what we were promised. The LTO Gen 5 design calls for storing 1.5 TB of data on a single cartridge, which is almost double the storage capacity of the LTO Gen 4 specification, but less than the 1.6 TB that had been advertised. Native data transfer rates will be 140 megabytes per second, significantly less than the 180 MBPS that had been expected, and a lackluster 17 percent improvement over the 120 MBPS currently offered with LTO Gen 4 tape.

    LTO is a half-inch magnetic tape format originally developed in the late 1990s by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Seagate as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats, such as Quantum‘s DLT, Sony‘s AIT, and IBM’s Magstar 3480 tape drive platforms.

    Capacity and speed have steadily improved since the original LTO Gen 1 tapes, which offered 100 GB of capacity and a 15 MBPS native data transfer rate, began appearing on the market in 2000. In 2003, we were given LTO Gen 2 tapes, which offered 200 GB of capacity and data transfer rates of 40 MBPS. LTO Gen 3, which debuted in 2005, doubled capacity and speed to 400 GB and 80 MBPS, respectively. The LTO Gen 4 tape, which hit the market in 2007, doubled uncompressed capacity to 800 GB, and increased speed to 120 MBPS, a 50 percent improvement.

    For the last few years, everybody has been expecting LTO Gen 5 to continue building on past performance, and to deliver a native capacity of 1.6 TB and a native data transfer rate of 180 MBPS. That would correspond with a doubling of capacity and a 50 percent increase in speed, the same improvements we saw in 2007 when we moved from LTO Gen 3 to LTO Gen 4.

    Even as recently as last week, before the LTO Gen 5 specs were released, people were touting the hoped-for numbers, which are still listed on the Wikipedia listing for LTO.

    But apparently, those expectations were too lofty for the magnetic reality of tape.

    While the performance is not up to expectations, the LTO group has put some nifty new features into the new spec, including a new partitioning functionality that will provide new file and space management control, particularly for “rich media” formats, according to the LTO Program, which promises that more information on this “highly anticipated” technology will be available later this year.

    The new LTO format also supports WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality, as every format going back to Generation 3 has. LTO Gen 5 drives are also fully read-write compatible with LTO Gen 4 cartridges, and can read LTO Gen 3 cartridges (but can’t write to them).

    But there was one bright spot in the tape landscape last week, and it came from IBM, which claimed its researchers made a major a breakthrough in engineering and design for half-inch magnetic tape. According to IBM, several new technologies and techniques have come together to allow for a single cartridge to hold 35 TB of uncompressed data. You can read the entire story in this week’s The Four Hundred: “IBM Claims Major Breakthrough in Tape Density”.



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    Help/Systems:  Event-driven job scheduling for UNIX, Linux, Windows & IBM i servers
    LANSA:  Transport your apps to a new dimension with RAMP. FREE Webinar!
    COMMON:  Join us at the annual 2010 conference, May 3 - 6, in Orlando, Florida

    IT Jungle Store Top Book Picks

    Easy Steps to Internet Programming for AS/400, iSeries, and System i: List Price, $49.95
    The iSeries Express Web Implementer's Guide: List Price, $49.95
    The System i RPG & RPG IV Tutorial and Lab Exercises: List Price, $59.95
    The System i Pocket RPG & RPG IV Guide: List Price, $69.95
    The iSeries Pocket Database Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket SQL Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Query Guide: List Price, $49.00
    The iSeries Pocket WebFacing Primer: List Price, $39.00
    Migrating to WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    Getting Started With WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries: List Price, $89.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?: List Price, $49.00
    Chip Wars: List Price, $29.95

    IBM Claims Major Breakthrough in Tape Density Creating Yes/No Fields in SQL Queries

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 10, Number 4 -- January 26, 2010
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

Help/Systems
PowerTech
New Generation Software
Computer Keyes
VAULT400

Table of Contents

  • LANSA Likes Its Chances as GS1 Item Alignment, GDSN Initiatives Advance
  • Tripwire Rides Log Management Gig into SIEM Business
  • ManageEngine Updates Systems Management Software
  • CCSS Adds MIMIX Monitoring to i/OS Systems Management Suite
  • JobQGenie Now Protects Job Queue Contents Through IPLs
  • LTO 5 Speed, Capacity Lower Than Expected
  • NGS Updates Accounting Software
  • Original Software Touts Win at ‘Big 5’ British Bank
  • FalconStor Updates Deduplication Offering
  • Vendors Go Gaga for iPhone at Lotusphere

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
  • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
  • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
  • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
  • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
  • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
  • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
  • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle