Press release from Fuijifilm Australia
Fujifilm Australia today announced that it had launched the first LTO-6 data cartridge1 in Australia and New Zealand. Fujifilm’s LTO-6 cartridges are the only LTO media that has achieved the very high capacity of up to 6.25TB compressed with a transfer rate of up to 400MB/second by applying Fujifilm’s unique Barium Ferrite magnetic particles in combination with Fujifilm’s current NANOCUBIC technology.
Fujifilm Australia General Manager Motion Picture Film, Recording Media and Optical Devices Marc Van Agten said, “The big difference for LTO-6 compared to past generations of LTO is that Fujifilm is the only manufacturer that has employed Barium Ferrite magnetic particles instead of using current metal particles.”
Barium Ferrite can maintain critical magnetic properties such as coercivity, frequency characteristics and lower noise even with a smaller particle size, resulting in the LTO-6 cartridge having higher capacity compared to past generations of LTO cartridges. In addition, Fujifilm LTO-6 cartridges are capable of a long archival life of over 30 years and can be accurately written to and read even when the ability of the drive’s recording head has diminished after repeated use.
Van Agten continued, “Since Fujifilm introduced LTO 1 in 2000, we have been leading the industry by continuously working to achieve higher performance and higher quality tape cartridges. In 2010, Fujifilm and IBM jointly announced a world record for recording density on a linear magnetic tape of 29.5 GB psi (Gigabit per square inch). This technology will result in a single cartridge with recording capacity of 35TB (native). Early in the following year of 2011, we announced mass production of Oracle’s latest enterprise tape cartridge, the StorageTek T10000C (5.0TB native) and in addition we announced the production of the IBM 3592 JC cartridge with capacity of 4.0TB, both featuring our new Barium Ferrite particles.”
Fujifilm LTO-6 data cartridge features
(1) Recording capacity of 6.25TB with transfer rate of 400MB/sec
By using Fujifilm’s original NANOCUBIC technology, the company managed to record 2,176 data tracks on just 12.65mm of tape width. This is the key to achieve the amazing recording capacity of 6.25TB (2.5:1 compression ratio, native 2.5TB). In addition, with the combination of linear multi-channel recording technology and data compression technology, a transfer speed of 400MB/sec is achieved (2.5:1 compression ratio, native 160MB/sec).
(2) High capacity recording achieved by advanced NANOCUBIC technology
> Nano-Particle technology: approximately 30% size reduction compared to metal particle used on LTO-5.
> Nano-Dispersion technology: developed uniform particle dispersion technology by applying high-dispersed binder technology.
> Nano-Coating technology: improved the ultra-thin layer coating technology to achieve an even thinner magnetic layer.
(3) Adopted Barium Ferrite magnetic particle
By adopting Barium Ferrite, Fujifilm LTO-6 has the following special features:
> Excellent read/write properties: by adopting Barium Ferrite, Fujifilm LTO-6 tapes have higher coercivity, better frequency characteristics and lower noise compared to older generations. The recording head of a well-used drive can become worn down – leading to a drop in performance. However, since Fujifilm’s LTO-6 with Barium Ferrite has more margin compared to metal particle tapes from a system performance point of view (measured using Fujifilm manufactured tapes), it can be accurately written to and read even when the ability of the drive’s recording head has diminished after repeated use.
> Long Archival Life: Barium Ferrite is chemically stable (already oxidized) and does not get easily demagnetized by outside energy interference. Therefore, magnetic tape using Barium Ferrite can achieve a long archival life of more than 30 years based on Fujifilm’s accelerated life tests.
(4) Eco-friendly design
The Fujifilm Group companies around the world aim for sustainable development by producing products based on the “Fujifilm Group Green Policy”. The new LTO-6 is also eco-friendly having been designed without BFRs (Brominated Flame Retardants) thus minimizing any negative environmental impact during the product’s life cycle.
(5) Encryption technology to protect sensitive data
Encryption technology is a feature of LTO-6 drive systems for the purpose of protecting sensitive data when transferring cartridges between multiple locations or during storage. This makes LTO-6 data tape highly secure.
(6) 16 kilobyte Cartridge Memory (IC chip)
With a spacious memory chip to record mount history information, troubleshooting is more easily accomplished when a cartridge does face operating issues. The IC chip can be read utilizing a device such as the Fujifilm Data Cartridge Analyser.