3M announces TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges, taking Travan technology into gigabyte territory; extends product family to QIC 3010, 3020 formats.ST. PAUL St. Paul as a missionary he fearlessly confronts the “perils of waters, of robbers, in the city, in the wilderness.” [N.T.: II Cor. 11:26] See : Bravery , Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 1995--3M Tuesday announced its TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges -- the second and third members of a family of new high-capacity tape products that incorporate the company's Travan technology. The TR-2 minicartridge, a modified QIC-3010 cartridge, provides users with 800 MB of uncompressed storage capacity (1.6 GB compressed). The TR-3 minicartridge, the third step on the Travan migration path, is a modified QIC-3020 cartridge that provides 1.6 GB of capacity (3.2 GB compressed). The suggested list prices for TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges are $42.15 and $43.75, respectively. The products are expected to be available in the third quarter this year through 3M's worldwide network of distributors and resellers. The Travan platform features a unique drive/minicartridge interface that is included in a patent application filed by 3M. The Travan platform optimizes available space in a 3.5-inch form factor housing. Minor mechanical changes enable Travan drives to accept current QIC (Quarter Inch Cartridge) A magnetic tape technology introduced in the early 1980s that has been widely used for backup. It was the first popular tape format for PCs. , QIC-Wide and Travan minicartridges -- a critical need for users, given the installed base of more than 200 million QIC-compatible minicartridges worldwide. The TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridges contain 750 feet of .315-inch high-coercivity 900 oersted Pronounced "erst-ed." The measurement of magnetic energy. The higher the Oe rating in a material, the more current is required to change its magnetic polarity. Named after the Danish scientist, Hans Cristian Oersted (1777-1851), it is used, for example, to measure the coercivity (Oe) gamma ferric oxide (Fe2O3) An oxidation of iron used in the coating of magnetic disks and tapes. See ferrous. media. The TR-2 has a data density of 22,125 flux transitions per inch (ftpi), while TR-3 stands at 44,250 ftpi. The TR-2 and TR-3 minicartridge subsystems use a floppy interface with transfer rates of 125 Kb/s for the TR-2 and 250 Kb/s for the TR-3. Like the TR-1 minicartridge, 3M's new TR-2 and TR-3 products require no changes in media formulation, and will use existing drive electronics and head technology. The TR-1 minicartridge was commercialized in May and provides users with 400 MB of uncompressed storage capacity, more than double the capacity of the industry's leading QIC-80 minicartridge. Effective Solution to Storage Limitations "The information explosion -- epitomized by the growth in on-line services and multimedia -- has created an insatiable demand for greater storage capacity and performance," said Doug Olson, director of business development, 3M Data Storage Tape Technology Division. "With the introduction of the TR-2 and TR-3 products, users now have access to the next generation storage platform, to more than keep pace with soaring hard disk capacities," Olson said. In addition to keeping up with hard disk capacities, Travan technology will enable the industry to better support emerging software applications like Hierarchical Storage Management See HSM. (HSM (1) (Hierarchical Storage Management) The automatic movement of files from hard disk to slower, less-expensive storage media. The typical hierarchy is from magnetic disk to optical disc to tape. ) on the desktop and Windows 95 applications, he added. "Travan technology should be welcome news to millions of PC users," said Bill Frank, president of Augur augur: see omen. Visions, a market research firm in Los Altos Los Altos (lôs ăl`tōs, lŏs), residential city (1990 pop. 26,303), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1952. There is diversified light manufacturing. , Calif. "The Travan minicartridge provides the next leap forward for 3.5-inch QIC drives, doubling capacities while preserving backward compatibility See backward compatible. (jargon) backward compatibility - Able to share data or commands with older versions of itself, or sometimes other older systems, particularly systems it intends to supplant. ," said Raymond Freeman Jr., president of Freeman Associates Inc., a market research firm in Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. , Calif. Future Development Efforts Storage industry leaders like 3M, Hewlett Packard's Colorado Memory Systems Division, Conner Peripherals Conner Peripherals was a company that manufactured hard drives for personal computers. Conner Peripherals was founded in 1986 by Seagate Technology co-founder Finis Conner, as a merger between a company of his and another started by MiniScribe founders John Squires and Terry , Exabyte, Iomega, Rexon, AIWA AIWA Asian Immigrant Women Advocates AIWA Armenian International Women's Association , Pertec Memories and Sony will continue to support future development of Travan drive and recording formats to assure further expansion of the market for tape-based applications. Most Travan drives offer 2-to-1 data compression, which doubles native capacity. Each point along the Travan migration path represents about a two-fold increase above all previous capacity points. The Travan platform is fully backward compatible with the installed base of QIC minicartridges. 3M also hopes to introduce a Travan TR-4 minicartridge with a capacity of 4 GB (uncompressed) by the end of 1995. Data cartridge technology, invented and patented by 3M, is the world's most popular desktop tape backup technology and boasts an installed base of more than 12 million drives, with 3 million drives shipped in 1994 alone, demonstrating the rapid market growth of QIC technology. 3M is the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of branded minicartridges. For more information on minicartridge technology, please contact 3M at 800/888-1889, Ext. 33. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: Travan is a trademark of 3M. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. QIC-Wide is a trademark of Sony. CONTACT: 3M Data Storage Products, St. Paul Larry Teien, 612/736-5961 or Fleishman-Hillard, Minneapolis/St. Paul Brent Bauer, 612/222-4885, or fhbauer@aol.com |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion