LTO stands for Linear Tape-Open. This type of tape is used for storing data on magnetic tape, and was originally developed in the late 90’s by Seagate, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

The data on the first generation of LTO tapes is stored in 384 data tracks. Within those 384 data tracks lies 4 data bands, which each contain 96 tracks per band. Since some of the newer LTO tapes releases, the number of data tracks has increased.

When data is being stored on the LTO tapes, it is stored in a linear array, which means that the data is filled in piece by piece on the tape as it advances towards the end of the tape, in a single file line all the way there.

There are several different generations of LTO tapes. The various generations and some of their specs are as follows:

LTO-1

• Release Date: 2000
• Native Data Capacity: 100 GB
• Max Speed: 15 MB/s
• Tape Thickness: 8.9 ?m
• Tape Length:  609 m
• Encryption Capable?: No
• WORM (Write Once Read Many) Capable?: No
• Encoding: RLL 1,7
• Write Elements: 8
• Tape Tracks: 384
• Wraps per band: 12
• Linear Density: 4880 bits/mm

LTO-2

• Release Date: 2003
• Native Data Capacity: 200 GB
• Max Speed: 40 MB/s
• Tape Thickness: 8.9 ?m
• Tape Length:  609 m
• Encryption Capable?: No
• WORM (Write Once Read Many) Capable?: No
• Encoding: PRML
• Write Elements: 8
• Tape Tracks: 512
• Wraps per band: 16
• Linear Density: 7398 bits/mm

LTO-3

• Release Date: 2005
• Native Data Capacity: 400 GB
• Max Speed: 80 MB/s
• Tape Thickness: 8 ?m
• Tape Length:  680 m
• Encryption Capable?: No
• WORM (Write Once Read Many) Capable?: Yes
• Encoding: PRML
• Write Elements: 16
• Tape Tracks: 704
• Wraps per band: 11
• Linear Density: 9638 bits/mm

LTO-4

• Release Date: 2007
• Native Data Capacity: 800 GB
• Max Speed: 120 MB/s
• Tape Thickness: 6.6 ?m
• Tape Length:  820 m
• Encryption Capable?: Yes, AES256-GCM standard
• WORM (Write Once Read Many) Capable?:Yes
• Encoding: PRML
• Write Elements: 16
• Tape Tracks:896
• Wraps per band: 14
• Linear Density: About 13300 bits/mm

Let’s compare some of the features introduced between the generations of LTO.

LTO-1

First of the LTO tapes, was the only one of it’s kind (and only) to use RLL 1,7 encoding.

LTO-2

This LTO doubeled the originals storage capacity and also it’s transfer speed. It is also the first one to utilize the PRML standard for it’s encoding.

LTO-3

This doubled capacity and transfer speed, again. It also doubled the number of writes, and was the first to use the WORM feature.

LTO-4

This doubled the capacity of the LTO-3 was capable of in storage. It also was the first to include encryption, using 256-bit drive level encryption.

LTO-5 and LTO-6 are also scheduled to be released, but the current date is unknown at this time.

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