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LTO-7 Specifications Posted – get the real story here
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
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
9 Replies
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Ran across this today:
https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/2/897/ENUS115-132/ENUS115-132.PDFCuriously, it says 10/23/15 as the release date for the library
but maybe that’s not with the lto-7 drive?Deanan
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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
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
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.
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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
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
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.” -
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
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
The single drive model is also in their sales manual as “Available” on Nov 20th:
Who knows on what available means but it doesn’t seem like a normal product speculative announcement.
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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 / secLTO-6:
Native Capacity = 2.5TB / tape
Native Throughput = 160MB / secLTO-5:
Native Capacity = 1.5TB / tape
Native Throughput = 140MB / secFor users in the M&E space, these are the numbers that you should work with when using LTO technologies.
Tim
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Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.tolisgroup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters! -
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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