Chaparral Robotic Tape Libraries Offer Performance and Reliability for Digital Video Applications.

RENO, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1997--The latest additions to MountainGate's Chaparral family of robotic tape libraries are the N-300 and N-540, based on 3590 compatible 1/2 inch tape drive architecture. Featuring speed, fault tolerance and expansion capability, these new library systems are designed for the demands of digital video and graphics applications. Additionally, the fast transfer speed and the fast time to data make them ideal for hierarchical storage management (HSM) applications.

The Chaparral N-300 is the only library system targeted at the video market to use 3590 compatible tape drives. These drives boast fast transfer rates as well as high reliability. Utilizing Interleaved Serpentine recording technology, 3590 drives provide sustained transfer rates of 9 MB/sec through a differential SCSI-2 interface. With a high speed search capability of 5 meters/sec, the N-300 provides the rapid access to data demanded by digital video and graphics applications.

The N-300 features a chassis capacity of up to 300 cartridges and up to four 3590 compatible tape drives. The N-540 functions as an expansion unit for the N-300, providing space for up to 540 cartridges. Multiple N-540s can be daisy chained to provide even greater capacity and lower cost per GB. When expansion capability needs to be combined with speed and fault tolerance, up to eight N-300s can be daisy chained. This scalability of N-300 systems is the best available and allows users to start small and grow their systems as needed. Tape pass-through speed from chassis to chassis is less than 14 seconds. Maximum total system capacity is 40.8 TB.

All Chaparral tape libraries feature a dual cartridge handler mechanism able to perform at least 350 swaps per hour while also providing fault tolerance for unattended operations.

Gene Barbera, product marketing manager for near line storage, said, "With the unique dual cartridge handler mechanism, Chaparral tape libraries have provided a level of speed and redundancy that sets them apart from other library products. The 3590 compatible drives further improve the speed and reliability, providing an excellent solution for demanding applications such as digital video and HSM." -0-

MountainGate, a Lockheed Martin Company, has provided industry-leading removable and rugged data storage products for more than 20 years, offering the widest range of storage solutions to a variety of markets and applications. Today, the company develops products specifically for the broadcast and entertainment industries, applying its expertise to deliver complete solutions for the storage and management of images in the digital video realm. Notable groundbreaking products from MountainGate include the R-Mag removable hard drive developed for Avid, the first long format VDR, the first multiformat VDR, the first VDR to support the wide screen format, as well as the only VDR for high-definition applications. Other product lines include disk and RAID arrays and digital linear tape (DLT) libraries. The MountainGate Fibre Channel (FC) system is the first complete FC network and storage system available in the industry.

MountainGate has manufacturing facilities in Reno, NV and Portumna, Ireland and sells through a worldwide dealer network. For sales and distribution information, contact MountainGate at 702-851-9393 or 800-556-0222, or send e-mail to [e-mail] . Detailed company and product information is available on the world wide web at www.mountaingate.com .

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