The Linear-Tape Open very high-density tape storage consortium, driven by IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Seagate Technology Inc, has established a media and drive verification process, with testing and analysis services provided by Measurement Analysis Corp of Torrance, California. The early establishment of a verification process could be another boost for the LTO camp in its race to establish a new industry standard ahead of Quantum Corp, and Sony Corp, which are both promoting rival proprietary technologies (CI No 3,659). IBM claimed an early lead for the group last week, demonstrating 100GB of natural (uncompressed) storage on single cartridge for the first time. Now, according to an LTO spokesman, there are four licenses for the LTO Ultrim back-up tape technology, including IBM, HP, Seagate and Fujitsu Computers. And five licensees of the Ultrim media technology: Fuji Film, Imation (formerly 3M), Mtec, Quantegy (formerly BASF) and Verbatim.
