Brochure
12
Brochure | HP LTO Ultrium Storage Media
The ultimate interchange reliability test for an archival usage model
There are several reasons why this is the ultimate interchange reliability test.
Brand new media – sometimes called green tapeis the most demanding for a tape drive to
work with. That is because new cartridges have not yet been subject to the ‘smoothing’ that
occurs over time as media is used more repeatedly, making re-used tapes less abrasive than
green tapes.
One in, one out interchange of MP and BaFe. In the HP Interleave test, not only is the tape
drive having to cope with 100% green tape, but it also has to deal with both LTO-6 media
choices: MP and BaFe. If there were any performance dierences as a consequence of using
one tape/particle design over another, interleaving would highlight the dierences. Simply
put, if one media type performs well, but another causes the drive to struggle, the capacity
and transfer rate metrics for the sub-par formulation would be clearly visible.
Time and cost. Performing this kind of test, using 600 tapes on a single drive and in a controlled
environment, is a colossal undertaking. Almost certainly, it’s beyond the reach of end users who
are unlikely to possess the time, facilities, budget and, most important, forensic diagnostic tools
to complete such an analysis.
The Interleave LTO-6 Green Tape test completed successfully, using a total of 600 cartridges.
During the test, more than 1.5 PB of data was written. There was no signicant degradation
of key metrics, indicating excellent stable performance in terms of:
• User capacity
• Excess capacity
• Transfer rate
To nd out more, please refer to the detailed HP technical white paper ‘HP LTO-6 Ultrium
Storage Media Interleave testing – An extreme comparison of BaFe and MP green tape
performance’ Pub Number 4AA5-5090ENW