LTO8, LTO Ultrium 8 Data Cartridges

The LTO8 tape is the latest generation of LTO tape cartridge available with the highest speed and capacity. The LTO Ultrium 8 data cartridge stores up to 12TB in native or uncompressed capacity at speeds of up to 360MB/sec, and up to 30TB of compressed data at speeds up to 900MB/sec. LTO8 tape library owners can still use the LTO7 Type 'M' or LTO7 M8 tape will have a capacity of up to 9TB native and up to 22.5TB compressed, but the LTO8 tape itself will be the highest capacity. Both the LTO7 M8 tape and the LTO8 tape itself have the same speed for read and write. The new LTO8 stand-alone drives will be able to read and write to LTO7 tapes, the pre-formatted LTO7 Type M or M8 tapes and the new LTO8 tapes. The LTO8 Ultrium 8 data cartridge is now about the same dollar cost per TB as the Type M or M8 tape.

Please note that LTO8 drives will not be able to read or write to LTO6 tapes which is the first time ever an LTO drive cannot read back two generations! This could apply to the LTO7 tapes, LTO7 M8 or Type M tapes and therefore LTO9 drives will probably not read them! The LTO 7 Type M or M8 tape could be a problem when you upgrade to LTO9 tape for this reason.