• Storage & Archiving

  LTO-7 Specifications Posted – get the real story here

  Posted by Tim Jones on October 7, 2015 at 6:00 pm

  Hi Folks,

  The LTO-7 specs have been posted and as always, the marketing teams are boasting unrealistic tape capacities and performance numbers. The current output from LTO.org touts the capacity as 15TB/tape at 750MB/sec. But, as usual, they’ve hidden the “with 2.5:1 compression” deep in the text.

  The truth is that the tapes will NATIVELY hold 6TB and they will NATIVELY process data at 300MB/sec for the 99th percentile of what the Media and Entertainment industry produces and backs up / archives.

  Regardless of their misleading marketing, we still have reason to be excited – 6TB is more than double the current capacity of LTO-6 and 300MB/sec is over 40% faster than LTO-6.

  Aside from these numbers, we don’t have hard information concerning consumer availability or pricing of either the drives or the media, so please stand by…

  Tim
  —
  Tim Jones
  CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
  https://www.tolisgroup.com
  BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

  Neil Sadwelkar replied 10 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 9 Replies
• 9 Replies

• 

  Deanan Dasilva

  October 7, 2015 at 6:10 pm

  Ran across this today:
  https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/2/897/ENUS115-132/ENUS115-132.PDF

  Curiously, it says 10/23/15 as the release date for the library
  but maybe that’s not with the lto-7 drive?

  Deanan
• 

  Tim Jones

  October 7, 2015 at 6:57 pm

  That’s just the announcement that the libraries will be updated to support the new drive technology (you wont be able to put an LTO-7 into an existing library without a major firmware update). We’re going to have similar code updates for the HP library line up, but that means nothing until the drives are actually available.

  Tim
  —
  Tim Jones
  CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
  https://www.tolisgroup.com
  BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
• 

  Deanan Dasilva

  October 7, 2015 at 7:01 pm

  The standalone drive says it’s planned for Nov 20th. I prefer the HP drives but that seems like a good indicator that the drives would be available in Q4.

  https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=AN&subtype=CA&htmlfid=897/ENUSC15-044&appname=USN#115-136
• 

  Tim Jones

  October 7, 2015 at 7:27 pm

  I just noticed this in that Library PDF:

  “The TS3100 and TS3200 Tape Libraries incorporate IBM Multi-Path Architecture with logical libraries equal to the number of drives installed. Ultrium 7 tape drives for the TS3100 and TS3200 Tape Libraries are only available as feature numbers.”

  So they’re just making the announcement of compatibility in the future.

  Tim
  —
  Tim Jones
  CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
  https://www.tolisgroup.com
  BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
• 

  Deanan Dasilva

  October 8, 2015 at 8:38 am

  Looks like it’s getting more concrete…

  https://www.storagenewsletter.com/rubriques/tapes/ibm-first-to-reveal-lto-7-product/

  “IBM was the first company to launch an LTO-6 drive available November 9, 2012.
  Three years later, it’s also the first one to reveal an LTO-7 device supposed to reach the market on November 20, 2015, as Big Blue continues one of the strongest promoter of tape technology in the industry since decades.”
• 

  Tim Jones

  October 8, 2015 at 3:55 pm

  That article doesn’t make it more concrete, it’s just repeating IBM’s press release. I also love the way they mention that IBM has already launched several products “incorporating” the new LTO-7 tape drive. Uh, seems like an editor jumped the shark on that one since they’ve “announced”, not launched.

  Don’t get me wrong – I’m totally hoping that the engineering turn arounds are going to be quick, but I always let history guide me on these things.

  Tim
  —
  Tim Jones
  CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
  https://www.tolisgroup.com
  BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
• 

  Deanan Dasilva

  October 8, 2015 at 4:57 pm

  The single drive model is also in their sales manual as “Available” on Nov 20th:

  https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_sm/8/897/ENUS3580-_h18/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en

  Who knows on what available means but it doesn’t seem like a normal product speculative announcement.
• 

  Tim Jones

  October 8, 2015 at 9:12 pm

  Understood – sorry that we got off topic on IBM’s shipping dates.

  My original post was concerning the claims versus reality of the LTO-7’s capacity and performance.

  LTO-7:
  Native Capacity = 6TB / tape
  Native Throughput = 300MB / sec

  LTO-6:
  Native Capacity = 2.5TB / tape
  Native Throughput = 160MB / sec

  LTO-5:
  Native Capacity = 1.5TB / tape
  Native Throughput = 140MB / sec

  For users in the M&E space, these are the numbers that you should work with when using LTO technologies.

  Tim
  —
  Tim Jones
  CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
  https://www.tolisgroup.com
  BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!
• 

  Neil Sadwelkar

  October 25, 2015 at 5:31 pm

  My real world numbers for Bru-PE

  LTO-7:
  Native Capacity = up to 6TB p. tape or approx 5 TB with file sequences (e.g. DPX/ArriRaw)
  Native Throughput = 300MB/sec or speed of source drive whichever slower. Assume 150 MB/sec for USB 3.0/eSATA non-RAID drives.

  LTO-6:
  Native Capacity = 2.5TB p. tape or approx 2.2 TB with file sequences (e.g. DPX/ArriRaw)
  Native Throughput = 160MB/sec or speed of source drive whichever slower. Assume 150 MB/sec for USB 3.0/eSATA non-RAID drives.

  LTO-5:
  Native Capacity = 1.5TB p. tape or approx 1.2 TB with file sequences (e.g. DPX/ArriRaw)
  Native Throughput = 140MB/sec

  ———————————–
  Neil Sadwelkar
  neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
  twitter: fcpguru
  FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
  Mumbai India

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