TDK Launches WORM-type LTO Ultrium 3 Data Cartridge

December 13, 2004

TDK Corporation has developed the D2406W-LTO3, a WORM-type (Write Once Read Many) LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridge for the LTO (Linear Tape-Open) Ultrium format. The new product will go on sale in Japan from December 15.
Last month TDK commenced sales of its new rewritable LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridge, the world's first to pass certification testing by the CVE (Compliance Verification Entity), the organization certifying LTO standardization.
As the present needs for data storage continue to grow, the newly launched D2406W-LTO3 provides high-capacity and high transfer-rate media in a WORM-type that cannot be erased or overwritten.

In today's digital network society, corporations, research organizations, medical institutions, government agencies and so on must typically store a variety of documents and materials in the form of electronic data. Some of this data, such as public documents at government bureaus, electronic patient records at hospitals, or financial or tax data, cannot, by legal requirement, be erased or altered, and must be retained for a specific duration. The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, for example, requires that securities brokerage houses retain records for a number of years, thus obliging the use of storage media that cannot be overwritten or erased.

Under such circumstances the LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridge, with its large 400GB capacity and rapid 80MB/s data transfer rate, has been achieved, and in a WORM-type ideal for such large-capacity data storage in that it does not allow contents to be erased or altered.

In the new LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridge D2406W-LTO3 that is to go on sale, TDK, a specialty manufacturer of recording media, has incorporated exclusively designed ultra-fine metal "Super Finavinx" magnetic particles; ultra-thin dual-layer coating technology; and high-precision slitter technology for high-accuracy tape cutting, to realize stabilized recording and playback of data and servo signals in the LTO Ultrium 3 format. As a WORM-type, this assures a stabilized, low error rate, even after undergoing repeated hard usage.

Further, a two-tone color cartridge, with blue-grey for the shell's upper half and light-grey for the lower half, simplifies visual differentiation as a write-once type cartridge.

TDK is confident that based on the above, the D2406W-LTO3 LTO Ultrium 3 data cartridge will be able to play an important role as a high-durability, high-reliability, WORM-type data storage media ideal for long-term archival use, while boasting large capacity and high speed.