Exabyte envisions Mammoth transformation for MammothTape.

In 1987, Exabyte shipped its first tape drive for data backup and archival. The EXB-8200 was a modified version of a professional video recorder produced by Sony Corp. Since it was founded in 1985, Exabyte's R&D challenge had been to design and produce electronics that would allow the 8200 to store and retrieve digital data rather than analog video. With the R&D completed, the manufacturing process was simple: Exabyte electronic boards were installed into the modified consumer tape decks, which continued to be mass-produced by Sony. The actual manufacturing was simple, and Exabyte was able to produce a drive with ten times more capacity than any other tape storage drive available at that time, at a dramatically lower cost.

The most successful follow-on to the 8200 was the EXB-8505, which first shipped in 1992. It was also based on the same enhanced video deck concept as the 8200, but was packaged into a half-high format. It shipped almost 650,000 units, and gained widespread acceptance with computer manufacturers like IBM, Sun Microsystems, DEC, and Siemens. The 8505 was a defining product for the entire mid-range tape storage category. But, even while Exabyte was enjoying its success with the 8505, both the market and the manufacturing process for tape drives were becoming more complex and competitive. For its follow-on to the 8505, Exabyte determined that the market required a more rugged deck mechanism, designed for heavy commercial use rather than just occasional consumer use. As a result, Exabyte began designing and building its own tape deck mechanism, to replace the original Sony deck. The technology was named MammothTape, and the first Mammoth drive was shipped in 1995. When it was introduced, Mammoth was the largest and fastest tape drive available for the midrange market. It was also the first tape drive to introduce a new type of magnetic media, known as Advanced Metal Evaporated or AME media. AME media was far more advanced and durable than other types of media that were sold then, and it continues to be sold today. Unfortunately, the introduction of Quantum Corporation's competitive DLTtape technology and delays in Mammoth product introduction dampened the market's enthusiasm for Exabyte's newest product.

In 1999, Exabyte launched Mammoth-2 (M2), which, like its predecessor, was the largest and fastest midrange tape drive available at the time. Since its introduction, Mammoth-2 has built a significant user base, and is one of just a handful of tape drive products that meet the needs of high-end automated backup in networked environments.

In 2001, through its merger with Ecrix Corporation, Exabyte acquired a new tape technology, VXA. VXA is an innovative packet-based tape technology widely recognized for its high value and high reliability. VXA had enjoyed substantial success in the low-end of the mid-range market, with OEM agreements from Compaq, Apple, and Fujitsu. The merger of the two companies, Exabyte and Ecrix, set the stage as well as the expectation for the merger of their two technologies, MammothTape and VXA. This technology merger will redefine Exabyte's product offerings and roadmap. The opportunity is to bring to market yet another category-defining product, combining high-end-performance and high-end reliability at an entirely new price point.

The Original Mammoth

The first Mammoth drive features 20GB of native capacity and a 3MB/ sec native data transfer rate. It has proven consistently reliable, compatible, and economical. Mammoth was adopted by several OEMs including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Siemens, and Bull. Its backward read compatibility with the Exabyte 8505XL and Eliant 820 offered Exabyte 8mm users a migration path to advanced MammothTape technology.

Mammoth-2 (M2)

The Mammoth-2 (M2) tape drive offers significant enhancements in performance, capacity, and features over the original Mammoth, while maintaining backward read compatibility. Mammoth-2 delivers a 12MB/sec native transfer rate, and an uncompressed capacity of 60GB. Mammoth-2's superior speed and capacity have made it an ideal midrange automation engine. Mammoth-2 also features a self-cleaning tape drive, equipped with conditioning heads and a dynamic cleaning wheel. Superior 225 AME media features Exabyte's exclusive Smart-Clean technology with a section of cleaning tape at the beginning of each data cartridge, eliminating the need for a separate cleaning cartridge.

Mammoth-2 was also the first midrange tape drive equipped with native Fibre Channel. By eliminating Fibre Channel-to-SCSI routers, a critical point of failure, native Fibre Channel reduces equipment costs as well as maintenance and management costs, and delivers significantly faster backup and restore performance at a lower total cost of ownership.

Enter VXA

In November 2001, Exabyte merged with Ecrix Corporation. Ecrix's flagship technology is VXA. VXA's unique packet-based format has proven its reliability benefits in independent evaluations and reviews. Some reviewers even went so far as to boil VXA tapes or freeze them into solid ice, only to demonstrate that a standard VXA drive was able to restore the data from the tapes. These abuses were not intended to test the robustness of the tapes, but the robustness of the format itself and of the drive's ability to read data from damaged tapes. In actual use, this translates into a very high level of data security and reliability. Although the VXA logical format is very different compared to other formats used in traditional tape technologies, VXA is a 8mm, helical scan format drive and shares the same foundation as MammothTape technology.

Mammoth-3--Redefinition of a Product

On the eve of the planned introduction of the third Mammoth installment, the Mammoth-3, Exabyte was faced with a difficult choice. Mammoth-3 was scheduled to offer users an uncompressed capacity of approximately 100GB and a native transfer rate of 18MB/sec. This did represent a significant increase over the Mammoth-2 specifications. However, if Exabyte were to launch Mammoth-3 this year, its advantage over competitive technologies and their follow-on generations (expected within the next six to 12 months) would not be sufficient to ensure the success of the product. Following the merger with Ecrix, Exabyte began a program to identify technology options that would allow Mammoth-3 to leapfrog the competition in price, performance, and value. Exabyte decided to integrate Mammoth-3 with its newly acquired VXA technology. This would, however, take additional development time. Exabyte was presented with a choice: either introduce Mammoth-3 at its current specifications, or take the time to develop an integrated MammothTape and VXA product.

Faced with this dilemma, Exabyte is making the choice that is consistent with its tradition of innovation. The company has chosen to redirect the Mammoth-3 development efforts, and to integrate MammothTape and VXA technology. The next-generation Mammoth drive will combine the high performance head, drum, read/write channel, and rotor features already developed for Mammoth-3 with the cost-efficient mechanism and logic architecture of VXA technology. This is the new definition of Mammoth-3.

While Mammoth-3 is in development, Mammoth-2 will continue to be a mainstay in the midrange market. With its affordable capacity and performance, as well as its enhanced features, including native Fibre Channel and native data-mover capability, Mammoth2 will continue to be a very competitive choice for midrange automation in SAN environments, capable of hitting higher performance benchmarks than competitive drives with higher nominal specs. Its half-high form factor and 8mm cartridge also make for a higher data density than competing products with half-inch cartridge formats. This makes it very attractive for today's crowded data center and collocation environments.

Mammoth-3

Compared to competitive tape drives, Mammoth-3 will offer dramatically superior price, performance, and reliability features. It will boast an uncompressed capacity of 250GB at a transfer rate of 24MB/sec and it will be introduced at a price point around $4,000. Mammoth-3 will bypass all other tape drive technologies in its category and will allow both MammothTape and VXA users to benefit from an industry-leading combination of capacity, performance, reliability, and price. In addition, Mammoth-3 is being engineered for backward read compatibility with both the Mammoth-2 (M2) and VXA-3 tape drives, making it a true crossover product between MammothTape and VXA technology. Development plans have not been finalized at this date, but initial shipments might occur as early as late 2003.

A New Direction for MammothTape

MammothTape is at a pivotal point in its lifecycle. As a high-performance tape technology, its benefits were overshadowed in the past by an extremely competitive environment and delayed schedules. However, through the integration of a pioneering, non-traditional tape technology, Exabyte is seizing the opportunity to radically enhance its MammothTape offerings. For now, Mammoth users can continue to depend on Mammoth-2's current performance and capacity features. In the meantime, MammothTape and VXA technology are being integrated into a superior tape product offering, well beyond what the original MammothTape technology could offer alone.

www.exabyte.com

Kelly Beavers is the vice president of marketing at Exabyte Corporation (Boulder, CO).