Linear Tape-Open (LTO) (2000 - ) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)
Linear Tape-Open (or LTO) is a magnetic tape data storage technology released in 2000, mainly used for backup. It was designed as a more open standard to compete with the DLT tape format.
Two versions of LTO were planned, but only the Ultrium version was released, using ½ inch tape in a single-reel cartridge. The first generation could contain up to 100 GB on a cartridge. The latest generation (LTO 9) holds 18 TB of uncompressed data.
The tape inside an LTO cartridge is wound around a single reel. The end of the tape is attached to a perpendicular leader pin that is used by the drive to grasp the end of the tape and mount it in a take-up reel. When a cartridge is not in a drive, the pin is held in place at the opening of the cartridge with a small spring.
Most manufacturers produced different generations of LTO cartridges in different colours, generally being 1) Black or gray, 2) Purple, 3) Blue-grey, 4) Green, 5) Dark red, 6) Black, 7) Purple, 8) Dark red / Burgundy, 10) Green.
Every LTO cartridge has a memory chip inside it, with a total of 16 KB on newer generations. This is used to identify tapes, identify generations of tape, or store tape-use information.
LTO currently competes with the IBM 3592 series.
Figures
Dimensions: 105.3 mm × 101.8 mm × 21.5 mm