Tape Replacement?

[Eggoid]

Hi

Is there any news for BD-RW to replace the tape technologies?

Currently we have several large AIT2 (100TB+) tape libraries and I could see the BD-RW being a great benefit namely;

Reduced enclosure footprint sizes
Reduced mechanical requirements (simpler media changer etc)
Faster data transfers

Therefore reducing data center costs and maintenance and providing a more robust storage solution.

Any thoughts?

[Blu-Wave]

Hi Eggoid

For some final tape possibilities before going to disc, look in the I need an IDE unit for windows NOW!!!!!! thread under the General Discussion topic. When it comes to current optical disc based options, Sony launched the Professional Disc for DATA [PDD] at 23GB 11MBps max last December, with dual-layer 50GB 22MBps due in 2005 and quad layer 100GB 43MBps in 2007. Note also that Sony’s 50GB BD machine is due in the consumer market in Japan this Summer, and TDK have already demonstrated 100GB four layer recording. Matsushita, known for their Panasonic brand, have just launched a 50GB machine – the DMR-E700BD, which will be the high-end model of Matsushita's DIGA DVD recorder series and will start selling on the Japanese market at the end of July. Incidently, LG are about to launch the XBD420/XBG420, a combined 200GB hard drive and BD drive, and Sony have the (rather expensive) type X VAIO machine with 1TB of hard disk space, a BD drive and seven! Tuners.

PDD sounds very promising in the field of computer data backup and archival - particularly given the random access advantages of disc-based media over tapes and the low cost of media (around £20).


Initial PDD Products launched by Sony include:

The BW-F101 23GB internal drive
The BW-S101/BW-RS101 Ultra 160 external drive
The BW-U101/BW-RU101 USB2.0 external drive, and
The BW-J601 Series 1.56TB max capacity 19" autochanger


Note that the PDDRW23 (rewritable) and PDDWO23 (write once) media have been specially designed to allow for multiple pickup mechanisms in future iterations, thus enabling a smooth transition to far higher read/write speeds in multi-head drives (as currently in use in the XDCAM Video Recording System to provide 144Mbps data transfer). Several other companies are also advertising large autochangers based upon PDD, and even using just a single head PDD came out ahead of Ultradisc in terms of compatibility and performance in a recent review.

See: http://www.sony.net/Products/MO-Drive/ProDATA/ for more details

... of course, ten or so years ago there was 1TB optical tape - but it cost around £15,000 per tape and £300,000 for the recorder at the time... :roll: