IBM Launches New UDO Gen 2 Optical Jukebox

July 17, 2007 Alex Woodie

IBM last week announced the 3996, a new series of optical libraries that use the latest generation of 5.25-inch Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drive technology developed by IBM partner, Plasmon.

The IBM 3996 Optical Library is a large-scale, externally attached device that offers multiple UDO storage technology options. There are three models of the 3996 Library, including the Model 032, the Model 080, and the Model 174. All models ship with the 30 GB UDO Gen 1 drives, but can be ordered with the newer 60 GB UDO Gen 2 drives, if specified.

The Model 032 has one optical disc drive and an option for adding a second drive; users can mix and match Gen 2 and Gen 1 drives. It has storage slots for up to 32 optical disc cartridges, giving it a maximum capacity of 960 GB if the 30 GB Gen 1 drives are used, to up to 1.92 TB with the 60 GB Gen 2 drives.

The Model 080 comes with two optical disc drives, with an option of adding two more for a total of four drives. Gen 1 and Gen 2 UDO drives can be inter-mixed. As you can tell by its name, the Model 080 has a native capacity of 80 disk slots, but that number drops to 72 if any drives are added. Its capacity ranges from 2.4 TB if Gen 1 drives are used, to 4.8 TB with Gen 2 drives.

The 3996 libraries are designed to work with System i and System p servers, and attach to them via low-voltage differential SCSI connections. The libraries are compatible with i5/OS V5R3 and V5R4 and AIX 5L 5.3 and later operating systems. UDO Gen 1 drives and disks are compatible with i5/OS V5R3 and V5R4. However, System i users must be at V5R4 if they want to use UDO Gen 2 technology, either in a pure-play or mix-and-match environment; i5/OS V5R3 does not support UDO Gen 2 technology.

IBM and Plasmon announced plans to bring UDO to the iSeries server (as it was then called) in 2003, and followed through on that commitment in 2004. Plasmon had originally planned to roll out Gen 2 UDO drives in 2005, but setbacks delayed availability of the upgraded technology until earlier this year. The delivery timeframe for the Gen 3 UDO drives, which were to offer 120 GB of capacity, is unknown. Plasmon’s Web site also mentions a 240 GB drive, but it does not specify which generation that is or when it will be introduced.

The new 3996 UDO libraries become available Friday. The 3996 Model 32 with a single UDO Gen 2 drive costs $5,010, while Models 80 and 174 with two UDO Gen 2 drives costs $10,020. A package of 10 rewriteable UDO Gen 2 60 GB disks costs $1,460, while a package of 10 write once, read many (WORM) 60 GB disks costs $1,280. For more information, see IBM hardware announcement 107-425.