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Tape Drives: What the Future Holds
Next Generation
- Current, planned models of drives we know (no 9-tracks!)
- Not including Travan, QIC (they can't backspace files)
| 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 |