Sony Corporation announced that it plans to develop LTO Ultrium 6 magnetic tape technology, which will store 3.2TB of data per cartridge and support a data transfer rate of up to 210MB/sec (native).

For more information visit: www.sony.com

Unedited press release follows:

Sony to Develop LTO-6 Tape Media Technology

Estimated to Deliver Estimated Storage Capacity of up to 8TB*

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 12, 2011 — Sony Corporation’s Storage Media Division has signed the LTO-6 licensing contract with the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs) consisting of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Quantum. This agreement now allows Sony to start development of its LTO-6 Ultrium media.

The LTO-6 tape technology is designed to support the ever-increasing capacity requirements of today’s data rich storage environments. Each cartridge will be able to store up to an estimated native 3.2TB (8TB 2.5:1 compressed) of data in one cartridge. This new generation of the LTO Ultrium format will also deliver an impressive data transfer rate of up to 210MB/s native (525MB/s 2.5:1 compressed).

Specific features of this latest generation of Sony’s LTO Ultrium tape cartridge media include:

• Increased storage capacity, achieved with a newly developed magnetic particle and advances in manufacturing technology, which allow for higher recording density.

• LTFS partitioning feature as previously introduced on LTO-5 tapes.

Sony’s development of the LTO-6 format demonstrates its continued commitment to support the storage industry’s needs with a range of storage media products that also includes formats such as AIT, AIT-Turbo, 5.25-inch M.O., DAT 160/320 and others.