History (1999): IBM First to Announce LTO Drives

IBM was the first member of the LTO consortium to announce its drive, the StorageSmart Ultrium, on October 27.

As announcements go, however, it’s rather spare. We know the cartridge capacity, 100GB, no surprise there. Transfer rate: “up to 15MB/s.” Interface is Ultra SCSI. The drive fits in a 5.25-inch full height form factor. But no release date, no price.

Basically, IBM can now boast that it was the first to announce a LTO unit, but more importantly, will it be the first to produce one?

Maybe there’s a clue in the statement released by Bob Galush, director, IBM’s PC options and peripherals division: “IBM Netfinity will support IBM StowgeSmart Ultrium tape drives early next year and will offer automated backup products in 2Q00.” And the only real bit of substance: “The StorageSmart drives are currently in the process of evaluation in more than a dozen key computer and storage OEMs and automation company, including Fujitsu Siemens Computers” (although won’t Fujitsu produce its own Ultrium drive?), ATL (a subsidiary of Quantum, whose next SuperDLT will be the Ultrium unit’s major competitor), and IBM Personal Systems Group (obviously).

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 142 on November 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.