[NRAO]

Tape Drives: What the Future Holds

All-in-one version

((Regular [individual slides] version)

Overview


 

Next Generation


Type Name Capacity Speed Available Cost/Media Comments
DAT/DDS DDS-3 12 GB 0.5 MB/S Now $800/$20 Price still dropping
DDS-4 20 GB 3 MB/S Now $1.2-1.4k/$40 Backwards compatible w/all DDS tapes
Exabyte Eliant 7 GB 1 MB/S Now $1.2k?/$10? lowest end 8mm drive left
Mammoth LT 14 GB 2 MB/S Now $1.3k/$36 "Lite" version of Mammoth
Mammoth 20 GB 3 MB/S Now $2.3k/$50 "Dirty" old tapes problem
Mammoth 2 60 GB 12 MB/S Now $4k/$90 Most Expensive but highest performance?
DLT DLT 2000 10 GB 1 MB/S Now ?/? Original DLT format, no longer available
DLT 4000 20 GB 2 MB/S Now $3k/$40 Lowest end DLT available
DLT 7000 35 GB 3 MB/S Now $5k?/$70 Industry Standard (for backups) but expensive
DLT1 40 GB 3 MB/S Now $1.25k/$40 compatible with DLT4000 only
DLT 8000 40 GB 6 MB/S Now <$5k/$85  
Super DLT 100 GB ? 2000 ?/? Not yet available

 

New Formats


Several new formats available now or soon...

Type Name Capacity Speed Available Cost/Media Comments
VXA VXA1 33 GB 3 MB/S Now <$900/$80 Multi-speed, 4 heads, helical scan 8mm
AIT AIT-1 25 GB 3 MB/S Now $2.4k/$100 Chip on each 8mm cartridge
Not compatible with Exabyte
AIT-2 50 GB 6 MB/S Now $5k/$100 Next Generation AIT
LTO Accelis 25 GB ? Any day now? ? 8mm helical scan
Ultrium 100 GB 10-20 MB/S Any day now? ? 1/2-inch linear tape

Comparison


Most "Bang for the Buck"

  • Cost of Drive: VXA1 ($27/G), DLT1 ($31/G), DDS4 ($65/G); worst is Eliant ($171/G)

  • Cost of Media: DLT1 ($1/G), Eliant ($1.43/G), Mammoth 2 ($1.50/G); worst is AIT-1 ($4/G)

  • Cost of Speed: VXA1 ($300/MB/S), Mammoth 2 ($333/MB/S), DLT1 ($417/MB/S); worst is DLT4000 ($2000/MB/S)

Drive $/GB (drive) $/GB (media) $/MB/S (speed)
dds3671.671400
dds4652.00433
eliant1711.431200
mammoth_lt922.57650
mammoth1152.50833
mammoth_2661.50333
dlt40001502.002000
dlt7000862.001000
dlt1311.00417
dlt80001252.12833
vxa1272.42300
ait1964.00781
ait21002.00833
 

Sorted by drive:

vxa1272.42300
dlt1311.00417
dds4652.00433
mammoth_2661.50333
dds3671.671400
dlt7000862.001000
mammoth_lt922.57650
ait1964.00781
ait21002.00833
mammoth1152.50833
dlt80001252.12833
dlt40001502.002000
eliant1711.431200
 

Sorted by media:

dlt1311.00417
eliant1711.431200
mammoth_2661.50333
dds3671.671400
ait21002.00833
dds4652.00433
dlt40001502.002000
dlt7000862.001000
dlt80001252.12833
vxa1272.42300
mammoth1152.50833
mammoth_lt922.57650
ait1964.00781
 

Sorted by Speed:

vxa1272.42300
mammoth_2661.50333
dlt1311.00417
dds4652.00433
mammoth_lt922.57650
ait1964.00781
ait21002.00833
dlt80001252.12833
mammoth1152.50833
dlt7000862.001000
eliant1711.431200
dds3671.671400
dlt40001502.002000
[Top]

What Should We Use?


  • Unclear what direction the industry (or standards) will take

  • VXA and DLT1 appear very promising

  • DDS-4 less attractive but has backwards compatibility

  • Mammoth 2 a clear winner if drive cost ($5k) is not a factor

  • DLT still king of backups, industry standard

  • Ultrium (LTO) will have 100G native, 800G by 2008

Conclusions


  • We live in "interesting" times wrt tape drives

  • Conservative approach would be to adopt DDS-4

  • Do we need the increased speed? Or Capacity?

  • Lower drive costs => we can afford to experiment

  • ... but watch for higher per-unit media costs

  • Data Interchange vs. Backup; industry targets latter, we need both.

Pat Murphy