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From: lindsay@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu (Donald Lindsay)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Optical Tape
Message-ID: <12608@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Apr 91 18:39:05 GMT
References: <3306@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1991Apr2.163914.7948@snitor.uucp>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 26

In article <1991Apr2.163914.7948@snitor.uucp> 
	rmc@snitor.UUCP (Russell Crook) writes:
>>There is a real need for a large backup medium right now.
>Actually, there *is* such a beast (albeit rare and expensive) called
>optical (write once) tape.  A company called CREO (in Vancouver)
>makes the drive (at something like 250,000$ or so), and a single
>tape reel stores several terabytes (I believe).

I rate optical tape as the bright hope for big, slow storage. ICI
(the developers/manufacturers of the media) tell a very good story
about density, permanence, and media cost. The questions now are the
speed, price (and availability) of drives.

CREO [604-437-6879] have apparently begun delivering a unit that puts
1 TB (yes, 1,000 GB) on an 880 m x 35 mm tape ( 12" reel ). I assume
(well, hope) that the 3 MB/s SCSI interface was a marketing decision,
not a technological limit. (It records at 0.1 IPS, but at ~ 1.5x1.5
micron^2 per bit, the writing lasers have to be scanned across the
width of the tape.)

LaserTape Systems [408-370-9064] have exciting vaporware: 50 GB in a
cartridge mechanically compatible with the IBM 3480 (about like an
8-track audio tape). That buys them into 5,000-tape autochangers...

-- 
Don		D.C.Lindsay .. temporarily at Carnegie Mellon Robotics