LTO3 Versus DLT600
Two competing tape technologies dominate the enterprise backup segment, LTO and SDLT. The current top 2 drives in this Super Drive space are the LTO3 and SDLT 600 respectively. Both products represent evolution from a previous generation.
The LT03 significantly raises the bar, both in capacity per tape and with significantly higher drive transfer rates. To obtain the maximum performance from these new drives it will be important to use a back-up server equipped with the appropriate newer generation of high speed interface cards. Typically these servers will utilise PCI-X interface technology which provides internal bus speeds capable of supporting these data rates. Open Storage Solutions has much experience and conducted many hours of testing with these higher performance interfaces and can ensure you get the most from your implementation of LT03 based libraries.
DLT tape has been the other tape standard for enterprise use for many years. There are thousands of companies around the world that rely on this well proven technology to protect their data. The SDLT600 is read compatible with the SDLT320 but utilises a new cartridge, Super DLTtape II, to obtain its 300Gbyte native capacity. The previous generation product, the SDLT 320, used the same Super DLTtape I cartridges as the SDLT 220 and is backward read compatible with DLTtape IV media, preserving investments in previous DLT technologies. For this reason alone DLT will continue to be a player in the tape market.
LTO Ultrium formats are open standards. This means that data written on any HP StorageWorks Ultrium 460 Tape Drive should be directly interchangeable with Ultrium 2 tape drives from Seagate and IBM. As our Companies name suggests, we strongly endorse the use of open standards. LTO delivers on the promises of cost effective product with three manufacturers producing competing tape drives to the LTO specification.
In our comparison table below we have used the HP Ultrium LTO2 product specs. The HP drive incorporates Adaptive Tape Speed which dynamically matches the transfer rates of slower hosts (from 10 MB/s upwards), which increases performance, reduces mechanical wear on the drive and extends tape life.
Please use our tape configurator link at the bottom of this page to receive more information.
| LT03 | SDLT 600 | LTO 2 | SDLT 320 | |
| HP Ultrium 960 | Quantum | HP Ultrium 460 | Quantum | |
| Native Capacity (GB) | 400 | 300 | 200 | 160 |
| Compressed Capacity (GB) | 800 | 600 | 400 | 320 |
| Media Type | MP** | AMP* | MP** | AMP* |
| Drive | LT03 Ultrium | SDLT 600 | LTO2 Ultrium | SDLT 320 |
| Drive Transfer Rate (Native) (MB/s) | 80 | 36 | 30 | 16 |
| Drive Transfer Rate (Native) (GB/h) | 288 | 133 |
108 | 57.6 |
| Drive Transfer Rate (Comp.) (MB/s) | 160 | 72 | 60 | 32 |
| Interfaces Available | LVD ULTRA, 320 SCSI, 2 GB Fibre Channel |
LVD ULTRA, 160 SCSI, 2 GB Fibre Channel | LVD Ultra-3 SCSI, 2 GB Fibre Channel | Ultra 2 LVD and HVD SCSI |
| Cartridge Memory | LTO-CM | No | LTO-CM | No |
| Compression Technology | ALDC ( 2 : 1 ) | DLZ (2 : 1) | ALDC ( 2 : 1) | DLZ (2 : 1) |
| MTBF - hours | 250,000 | 250,000 | 250,000 | 250,000 |
| Form Factor | 5.25inches | 5.25 inches | 5.25 inches | 5.25 inches |
| Manual Cleaning Required | No Spec | Yes | No Spec | Yes |
| Future of Technology | LT03 Ultrium | SDLT 600 | LTO2 Ultrium | SDLT 320 |
| Roadmap - Migration Path | the third of a six generation roadmap with plans to deliver an 3.2 TB (native) tape drive by the year 2010 | the third generation of a four generation roadmap. |
the second of a four generation roadmap | the second generation of a four generation roadmap. |
| Backward Read Compatible? | Read and Write compatible with LTO2, Read compatible with LT01 | Read & Write compatibility with SDLT 320. See Notes below. |
Read and Write compatible with LTO1 | 1st generation. Read compatibility with dual-head design - see note. |
| Backward Write Compatible? | read and write compatible with LTO2 | No | read and write compatible with LTO1 | No |