PARK RIDGE, N.J., March 27, 2007 – Sony’s latest Linear Tape-Open tape cartridge has been designed to deliver increased storage, higher transfer rates and greater reliability for businesses with critical data storage and archival needs, such as hospitals or financial institutions.

The new LTO Ultrium 4 cartridge doubles the storage capacity of the LTO Ultrium 3 tape format, from 800GB to 1.6TB compressed, with higher transfer rates of up to 240MB per second, up from 160MB.

“The LTO4 data cartridge can help keep businesses current with compliance regulations, as well as provide archival and back-up technologies for easy retrieval,” said Tom Murai, Sony Electronics’ director of marketing for storage media products.  “This new cartridge was designed with our customers’ evolving needs in mind, and it delivers on four key fronts: capacity, quality, protection and cost.”

To provide continued backward-compatibility, LTO Ultrium 4 format hardware has read-and-write capability with LTO 3 cartridges, and read capabilities with LTO 2 cartridges.  The LTO 4 format also features hardware-based encryption capabilities to better protect the storage and transport of sensitive information.

Sony’s LTO Ultrium 4 tape cartridge is expected to be available this spring.