FUJIFILM Recording Media GmbH, a subsidiary of FUJIFILM Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of data storage media, today introduced its new LTO Ultrium 6 data cartridge. The Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 cartridge is the first one in the world produced with Barium Ferrite magnetic particles using Fujifilm’s core Nanocubic technology. The LTO Ultrium 6 cartridge offers a super high compressed (2.5x) storage capacity of 6.25TB with the transfer rate of up to 400 megabytes per second.
Since Fujifilm introduced LTO 1 in 2000, we have been leading the industry by continuously working to achieve higher performance and higher quality tapes. In 2010, we made a joint announcement with IBM on a world record of recording density on a linear magnetic tape of 29.5Gbpsi (Gigabit per square inch), which equates to a single cartridge with a recording capacity of 35TB (native). The following year, Fujifilm announced mass production of multi-terabyte enterprise tape cartridges incorporating Barium Ferrite technology, supporting the latest enterprise tape systems from both Oracle (StorageTek T10000C) and IBM (TS1140).
“At Fujifilm, our technological advances are based on Fujifilm’s proprietary core technologies, and these help us meet the rapidly increasing demands that our customers have for long term file storage and data management,” said Shigeki Kobayashi, Managing Director, Fujifilm Recording Media GmbH. In this instance, Fujifilm chose to use Barium Ferrite magnetic particles instead of the current metal particles, because Barium Ferrite is chemically stable, and this enhances performance and increases archival life.
Nano Technology
Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 data cartridges use Fujifilm’s advanced NANOCUBIC coating process, which incorporates three Fujifilm proprietary technologies:
Nano-particle Technology: Finer particles (30% smaller than metal particle used on LTO-5)
Nano-dispersion Technology: Uniform particle dispersion by applying high-dispersed binder.
Nano-coating Technology: Improved ultra-thin layer coating to realize an even thinner magnetic layer.
As part of Fujifilm’s overall commitment to develop environmentally sustainable products, Fujifilm’s LTO Ultrium 6 cartridge offers a reduction on its impact on the environment by eliminating brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from all the mechanical parts of Fujifilm LTO6 cartridges. Tape is already viewed by many in the data storage industry to have less of an impact on the environment than other storage options because it consumes less energy.
LTO technology is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and enhanced by the Technology Provider Companies (TPC) – HP, IBM and Quantum – to help address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments.
LTO Ultrium 6 Features
Excellent read/write property: By adopting Barium Ferrite, Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 cartridge has higher coercivity, lower noise compared to older generations. Over time, the recording head of a well-used drives start to wear down leading to a drop in performance. However, since Fujifilm’s LTO Ultrium 6 cartridge with Barium Ferrite, from a system performance point of view, has more margin compared to metal particle tapes (measured using Fuji manufactured tapes), it can be read/written more accurately on these older drives.
Long Archival Life： Barium Ferrite is chemically stable (already oxidized) and does not easily get demagnetized by outside energy. Therefore magnetic tape using Barium Ferrite is said to have a longer archival life of more than 30year based on Fujifilm’s acceleration tests.
Larger Cartridge Memory: Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 cartridges offer more space to record specific cartridge information, with the introduction of a 16K Cartridge Memory (IC chip). This feature allows the user to record mount history and easily monitor the cartridge health.
Compatibility: LTO Generation 6 hardware will be backward read/write compatible with LTO Ultrium 5 data cartridges and backward read compatible with LTO Ultrium 4 data cartridges.
As with the previous generation, LTO Ultrium 6 hardware will incorporate the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Linear Tape File System (LTFS) dual partitioning functionality.
Fujifilm’s newest line-up will include an LTO Ultrium 6 WORM cartridge for Write-Once Read-Many applications, such as data storage compliance standards which require a non-rewriteable format.
Dual manufacturing facility and Largest LTO Assembly Plant in the World
To meet the growing demands of the LTO industry, over the last year, in addition to the dual manufacturing facility in Japan and in U.S., Fujifilm has restructured its U.S. manufacturing facility in Bedford, Massachusetts to increase the assembly capacity, allowing for greater flexibility and Just-in-time (JIT) Manufacturing. As a result, this facility has become the largest LTO assembly plant in the world.
Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 6 data cartridges will be available through approved Fujifilm partners.
For more information on LTO tape technology, product roadmaps and for general information on the format, visit www.ultrium.com.
