- Magstors Thunderbolt 5 LTO drive is based on its 2020 Thunderbolt 3 model
- TB5 certainly adds speed but what is the real world benefit of ties?
- There is no word about pricing but it is unlikely that
Magstor introduced the world’s first Thunderbolt 3 LTO tape driving back in 2020 and mixed traditionally tape-based storage with modern connection, and now the company has announced the world’s first Thunderbolt 5 LTO tape drive.
The company describes its latest product as the next step in offering flexible, high-speed backup and archive solutions to professionals working with large amounts of data.
Tape storage remains a standard for long-term archive needs due to its durability and capacity, and the Thunderbolt 5 LTO drive is designed for use in data-heavy environments such as media production and Enterprise IT. By integrating Thunderbolt 5, Magstor hopes to offer a faster, more streamlined connection between tape hardware and modern computer systems.
Increased speed
The new drive works with both macOS and Windows, and while Thunderbolt 5 offers higher bandwidth than previous versions, tape speeds remain limited by the format itself.
Although Magstor has not delivered many technical specifications, it is a given the new product that supports LTO-9 bands (18TB native / 45TB compressed capacity) that its predecessor does.
There is no confirmation of compatibility with the next generation of LTO-10 bands, which is expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2025, offering up to 36 TB of natives and 90 TB compressed capacity, but it would be a miss of the option if this support is not included.
Thunderbolt 5 achieves data transfer rates of up to 80 Gbps (10 GB/s) two-way in standard mode and up to 120 Gbps in one direction when using bandwidth boost mode.
LTO-10 is expected to deliver reading speeds of about 472 MB/s, which is one step up from LTO-8 at 360MB/s and LTO-9 at 400 MB/s.
Magstor says Thunderbolt 5 LTO Drive will be released by the end of 2025. Pricing has not yet been announced, but it is unlikely to be cheap.
The company’s LTO-9 Thunderbolt 3 Drive Retails for $ 6,299, and whether the extra speed of Thunderbolt 5 will justify the inevitable price increase is not yet seeing.
“At Magstor, we are obliged to push the boundaries of what is possible in data storage,” said Tim Gerhard, VP for product at Magstor. “After revolutionizing the market with the first ever Thunderbolt 3 LTO drive, we are happy to raise the bar again with Thunderbolt 5, ensuring that our customers have access to the most powerful and flexible storage solutions available.”
