Tape Technologies
The major tape technologies in use today are:
AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape)
AIT uses helical-scan technology to record data to tape,
recording the entire face of the medium with a single
pass.
The AIT tape moves at 1 inch/sec past the heads which are spinning at 5400RPM. This low tape speed, coupled with low tape tension,
mean a gentle handling of the media over the recording heads, providing longer life for both the drive mechanism and the media.
Since helical-scan recording does not require fast tape speeds, it eliminates the need of linear technologies (DLT, LTO) to "serpentine"
the tape (moving back and forth hundreds of times) in order to fill the cartridge with data. The "re-positioning" time of the drive ("shoe shine"
effect) is much faster than linear serpentine technologies, providing better performance.
AIT incorporates IBM's ALDC technology to provide state-of-the-art performance and capacity features. The ALDC compression chip,
which was previously only available in mainframe type tape drives, can offer an average data compression ratio of 2.6:1, compared to 2.0:1
with older compression algorithms.
Data integrity is further ensured through use of Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape media technology.
SAIT (Super AIT)
Super AIT leverages the AIT advanced helical-scan recording
technology, known for its high data density, outstanding
data transfer, reliability and durability.
The SAIT-1, the first generation of this half-inch
600 meters long tape cartridge format, has same areal
density and uses same technology as the 8mm AIT-3,
but has 5 times tape area than AIT-3. It introduces
a technology platform that delivers the industry's
highest capacity tape drive, storing up to 500GB of
uncompressed data on a single-reel, and featuring a
sustained native transfer rate of up to 30MB per second
uncompressed.
LTO (Linear Tape Open)
LTO uses serpentine linear recording very similar to
DLT, holding 384 tracks that run parallel to the edge
of the tape.
The heads are moving at 155inch/sec, writing up to
8 tracks in a single pass, therefore requiring 48 passes
of the tape, to fully fill it.
Ultrium is a single-reel format targeted at users requiring ultra-high capacity backup, restore and archive capabilities.
LTO-3 is the third generation of the LTO technology.
Technology Comparison
| Technology |
GB Capacity
(Native/Comp) |
MB/sec (Native/Comp) |
Avg Seek Time/ sec |
Power Draw (Watts) |
MTBF (Hours) |
| AIT-5 |
400/1040 |
24/26 |
52 |
20 |
400,000 |
| AIT-4 |
200/520 |
24/26 |
52 |
20 |
400,000 |
| AIT-3 |
100/260 |
12/30 |
27 |
14 |
400,000 |
| AIT-2 |
50/130 |
6/15 |
27 |
12 |
300,000 |
| SAIT-1 |
500/1300 |
30/78 |
~70 |
39 |
300,000 |
| LTO-1 |
100/200 |
15/30 |
~70 |
25 |
250,000 |
| LTO-2 |
200/400 |
35/70 |
~50 |
40 |
250,000 |
| LTO-3 |
400/800 |
80/160 |
72 |
40 |
250,000 |
Automated Tape Libraries
Tape libraries take advantage of their capacity and drive counts. This allows backup with little human intervention, as well as providing more data available for an immediate restore, if needed.
By evaluating the connectivity, capacity and tape format
requirements of the customer, Wietec engineers can determine
the optimal data storage solution.
Wietec has relationships with leaders in the tape library
industry, providing access to product families that ranges
from the desktop to the data center.
We deliver complete backup hardware and software, and
add value through integration services required for implementing
an enterprise-wide data safety net.
The following companies are our key tape library partners:
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