Maxell now shipping branded Super DLTtape Media

Maxell Corporation of America, the technology and marketing leader in advanced recordable media products, announced today that it is now shipping a branded Super DLTtape™ II media product. Maxell jointly developed the media with Quantum Corporation, to support the data recording requirements of Quantum's SDLT 600 tape drive. This resulted in Maxell being the world's first qualified manufacturer and supplier of Super DLTtape II media, with the broadest line of DLTtape offerings.

Super DLTtape II builds upon the success of previous Super DLTtape media with increased reliability, capacity and performance for managing today's increasingly complex backup environments. Super DLTtape II media optimizes the performance of the SDLT 600 tape drive, delivering a native capacity of 300GB (600GB with compression) and a native transfer rate of 36MB/s (72MB/s with compression). Maxell's Super DLTtape II, with its unique ceramic armor and high-coercivity metal particle technologies, will be available from resellers and distributors nationwide.

"Maxell continues to be the innovator in the storage media industry as a result of our investment in media technology research and development," said Peter Brinkman, Vice President of Marketing, Maxell Corporation of America. "By being the first qualified Super DLTtape II media manufacturer and supplier, and offering a branded Super DLTtape II with our NeoSMART technology platform, we once again are positioned to lead the industry in providing our customers with innovative products of unparalleled value, performance and capacity."

Maxell's Super DLTtape II media is based on the company's new and innovative Neo Super Maximum capacity Advanced Reliability Tape (NeoSMART™) technology platform. NeoSMART is a convergence of advanced tape and manufacturing technologies that support higher reliability recording and data recovery at the extreme track and bit densities demanded by SDLT 600 technology and beyond. The improved magnetic particles, new coating and dispersion technologies, and the other components of the NeoSMART platform are designed to support future tape cartridge capacities in excess of 1 Terabyte. A key element of NeoSMART is Maxell's Nano Composite Advanced Particles (NanoCAP) technology. NanoCAP combines an innovative particle structure with unmatched magnetic performance to produce a breakthrough magnetic particle that will enable the development of a new generation of tape drive and media products with native capacities of 10 Terabytes per cartridge.

"The strong relationship between Quantum and Maxell has always delivered leading performance and value to customers, and the new Maxell Super DLTtape II media offering continues that strong track record," said Phil Ritti, Vice President and General Manager, Quantum Storage Devices Media Division. "Storage demands continue to grow exponentially, and the new Maxell Super DLTtape II media is poised to successfully help customers meet their most critical backup, recovery and archive needs."

"Maxell demonstrates its commitment to DLTtape technology with its branded Super DLTtape II cartridge," said Robert Amatruda, research manager at IDC. "Maxell's core competencies in tape media development and brand will help the SDLT 600 gain market acceptance."