The DLT 8000 - the latest DLT drive from Quantum features 40/80GB with compression. To ensure backward compatibility with existing DLT 7000 and DLT 4000 systems, the drive uses the same widely available DLT tape IV media.

DLT tape backup systems protect business-critical data content in enterprise and business computing environments. The DLT 8000 is Quantum's latest advance on the industry-standard DLT tape technology roadmap, giving users a viable migration path for data protection. Overall, DLT tape systems have an installed base of more than one million drives and 30 million cartridges, making access to previously stored data particularly critical for IT managers. To ensure backward compatibility with existing DLT 7000 and DLT 4000 systems, the drive uses the same widely available DLT tape IV media. The DLT 8000 will also read DLT tape III and DLT tape IIIXT media, giving users the ability to read data from the DLT 2000 and DLT 2000XT.

With a native capacity of 40GB (up to 80GB compressed) and data transfer rate of 6MB/second (up to 12MB/second compressed), the DLT 8000 platform represents a 15% gain in native capacity and 20% gain in native performance over current DLTtape systems.