Tandberg Data reckons its latest autoloader can get 6.4TB of removable storage into a 1U rackmount space - that's 6.4TB in a 1.75 by 19-inch pizza box.

It's thanks to the arrival of half-height LTO-3 drives, and it highlights just how dense tape storage has become - although as usual with tape the capacity is nominal. LTO-3 actually stores 400GB per tape cartridge, and the 6.4TB figure depends on the drive achieving 2:1 data compression.

Called StorageLoader, the Tandberg device has two four-cartridge removable magazines.

Squeezing technology into a smaller space does mean trade-offs, with half-height tape drives offering lower performance than their full-height siblings. However, Tandberg claims this one can still paste data onto tape at over 400GB an hour.

Moving to LTO-3 allows the StorageLoader to generate non-rewritable WORM tapes for archiving, said Tandberg product veep Kjell Øyvind Aasene. He added that the $4650 (£2400) device also comes with a barcode reader and labels, rackmount kit, cabling and Symantec backup software. ®

Related stories

LTO hits level 4 (11 January 2007)
Quantum prepares for tape storage lock down (5 December 2005)
Cheap DLT pitched to outpace DAT (17 October 2005)
Quantum leaps into new tape era (7 September 2005)
Quantum previews SuperDLT (11 March 2005)
LTO bids to regain its pace (18 October 2004)