Terabyte tape drives

A tape drive that has a native capacity of 1.2 terabytes is currently under development. Tandberg Data's subsidiary O-Mass and Imation have agreed to develop the new technology and hope to deliver it to the market in 2005.

To achieve these impressive claims, O-Mass and Imation will be developing and utilising a new technology that magnetically writes data on a standard magnetic tape, but optically reads. The two companies are to develop both the drive and the tape cartridge. The latter will have a capacity of 1.2 terabytes and a transfer rate of 64 megabytes per second.

Norway's O-Mass and the US' Imation have signed an agreement to develop and commercialise the products, which they claim will be the world's fastest and highest capacity tape drive. Imation has purchased a 12 per cent equity stake in O-Mass. In a statement, Tandberg Data said Imation has paid US$5 million for the stake.

Companies have released a strategy plan and have defined the product family line, which includes a 20 terabyte capacity product. Additional investment is being sought to support the product.