History (1997): STK and Imation Work on 20GB Tape Cartridge

Storage Technology and Imation have signed an agreement to co-develop a new data storage platform that they expect will provide users of Windows NT, Unix and mainframe environments with significant improvements in price/performance over existing technologies.

The only information offered by either company: “The drive/cartridge solution will maintain compatibility with STK’s existing automation systems and simplify selection of data storage technology across a variety of operating environments, hardware platforms and end-user applications.”

According to a reliable source, the new technology, called Eagle, will be based on a new cartridge with nearly 20GB capacity, longitudinal recording, with a transfer rate close to 10MB/s. The cartridge will have a similar volume to that of 3480, and so could be easily integrated in StorageTek’s libraries, but it will have 2 axes instead of only 1, and should bear a certain resemblance to Magstar MP cartridges. The choice of 2 axes should permit shorter access times to those on 3480/3490 media.

The first Eagle drives should be announced at the start of 1998, first in SCSI and then in Escon interface.

It is highly unlikely that Eagle drives will be capable of reading 3480/3490, but the 2 different supports could probably co-reside in the same library.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 116 on September 1997 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.