SLR75: New Storage System for increasing demands on entry level servers

SLR75 cartridges and the corresponding Tandberg Data tape drives are available as of the first of November and offer a storage capacity of up to 75 GB with a data transfer rate of up to 8 MB/sec (with 2:1 data compression). SLR75 presents an optimum solution for users who already work with SLR systems of a prior generation and whose data amounts exceed the capacities of the existing tape storage system. SLR75 also presents a future-oriented solution for users who intend to newly invest into magnetic storage technology.

"The SLR 75 because of its 75Gb capacity and its reliability is very useful storage media for small to medium sized enterprise networks in this region," said Alvaro Valdez, regional manager, Imation Middle East. "We see a strong adoption for this technology in the banking and the telecom sector in the Middle East." The product is already available and along with SLR 140, is drawing the interest of network storage managers in the region.

A special advantage of SLR technology is the far-reaching backward compatibility within the technology family. Current storage systems can be updated and extended according to the increase of the administered data amount, without the necessity of copying the existing data files onto new magnetic tape cartridges. SLR75 tape drives are fully compatible with SLR cartridges back to generation SLR40 and can read SLR cartridges back to generation SLR4 (see table at the bottom).

SLR technology is a further development of QIC Maxi Cartridges, which over the last 20 years have been established as one of the magnetic tape systems most frequent used worldwide. SLR technology covers the whole range from entry level servers to midrange networks. Various types of SLR magnetic tape cartridges with different specifications and performance capacities are available. The SLR7 (40 GB), SLR60 (60 GB), SLR75 (75 GB), and SLR100 (100 GB) have been introduced to the market over the last 2½ years. They meet the demands of the entry-level server segment, the SOHO- and workstations market as well as of medium-sized networks. Tandberg Data therefore offers external and internal tape drives as well as autoloaders.

Imation plans to sell the SLR75 data cartridge in the first quarter of 2004 in the Middle East.

Enormous reliability and reduced backup time
The success of Imation SLR magnetic tape cartridges is last but not least owed to their high reliability, starting even with the tape construction. As the only ones in their performance category, the cartridges possess a system-unit cover which is assembled on a massive aluminum plate. The same principle is used for example in aerospace, since the aluminum plate not only provides the cartridge with high stabilility, but also with enormous temperature resistance. During the normal operation process the great accuracy of the recording method is even more important than the mechanical stability. Due to a special ECC error correction system (ECC = error correction code) and continuously readjusting write-/read heads an enormous data integrity can be achieved. ECC is available for SLR systems starting with SLR40. Tandberg Data reckons with a failure security near 99 per cent, which in the market segment for small- and medium-sized magnetic tape systems is singular.

Furthermore, the tape drives possess a read/write routine by means of which the data integrity is checked while recording. Possible errors can therefore easily be located and corrected. Moreover, the required backup time is reduced by up to 50 per cent, since no separate verify operation is necessary.