Exabyte (company)
Encyclopedia
Exabyte Corp. was a manufacturer of magnetic tape data storage
Magnetic tape data storage
Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital information. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive...
products headquartered in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Exabyte Corp. is now defunct, but company's technology is sold by Tandberg Data
Tandberg Data
Tandberg Data GmbH is a company focused on data storage products, especially streamers, headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. They are the only company still selling drives that use the QIC and VXA formats, but also produce LTO along with autoloaders, tape libraries, NAS devices, RDX Removable Disk...
under both brand names. Prior to the 2006 demise, Exabyte offered tape storage and automation solutions for server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s, workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
s, LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
s and SAN
Storage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
s. Exabyte is best known for introducing the Data8 (8mm) magnetic tape format in 1987. At the time of its demise, Exabyte manufactured VXA
VXA
VXA is a tape backup format originally created by Ecrix and now owned by Tandberg Data. After the merger between Ecrix and Exabyte, VXA was produced by Exabyte Corporation...
and LTO
Linear Tape-Open
Linear Tape-Open is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats that were available at the time. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Seagate initiated the LTO Consortium, which directs development...
based products. The company controlled VXA technology but did not play a large role in the LTO community.
Corporate history
The company was formed in 1985 by Calvin Chan Zhi Huan ( Chairman of board of director ) and a group of ex-StorageTek engineers who were interested in using consumer videotapeVideotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
technology for data storage. The company advanced technology for computer backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
s in 1987 when they introduced the Data8 magnetic tape format. The company's follow-up technologies, including Mammoth and Mammoth-2, were less successful.
Exabyte went public on the NASDAQ in 1989 under the symbol EXBT.
Acquisitions
Exabyte's history of acquisitions includes:- 1992 - R-Byte, Inc., a maker of 4mmDigital Data StorageDigital Data Storage is a format for storing computer data on a Digital Audio Tape .DDS uses tape with a width of 3.8mm, with the exception of the latest formats, DAT 160 and DAT 320, which are 8mm wide...
tape systems. - 1993 - Tallgrass TechnologiesTallgrass TechnologiesTallgrass Technologies Corporation was a Kansas City based microcomputer hardware and software company founded in December 1980 by David M. Allen. It was the first manufacturer to offer a hard-drive product for the IBM PC. The product was initially sold in Computerland stores, alongside the...
of Lenexa, KS. Tallgrass manufactured 4mm DDSDigital Data StorageDigital Data Storage is a format for storing computer data on a Digital Audio Tape .DDS uses tape with a width of 3.8mm, with the exception of the latest formats, DAT 160 and DAT 320, which are 8mm wide...
drives, backup software, and had a significant distribution channel. - 1993 - EverexEverexEverex is a manufacturer of desktop and notebook personal computers. It was established in 1983 and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company was founded by Steve Hui, John Lee and Wayne Cheung. In 1988, Everex was the leader in tape backup sales with half the world market...
's Mass Storage Division (MSD). Everex did its research and development in Ann Arbor, MI and manufactured its products in Fremont, CA. Everex MSD made QICQuarter Inch CartridgeQuarter inch cartridge tape is a magnetic tape data storage format introduced by 3M in 1972, with derivatives still in use as of 2009. QIC comes in a rugged enclosed package of aluminum and plastic that holds two tape reels driven by a single belt in direct contact with the tape. The tape was...
products. - October 1994 - Grundig Data Scanner GmbH, for $2.9 million and renamed Exabyte Magnetics GmbH. This subsidiary designed and manufactured helical scanHelical scanHelical scan is a method of recording high bandwidth signals onto magnetic tape. It is used in reel-to-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives....
tape headTape headA tape head is a type of transducer used in tape recorders to convert electrical signals to magnetic fluctuations and vice versa.-Principles of operation:...
s.
Ecrix merger
Ecrix was a magnetic tape data storageMagnetic tape data storage
Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital information. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive...
company founded in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. The founders, Kelly Beavers and Juan Rodriguez, were two of the three founders of Exabyte. The research and development done by Ecrix focused on making a cheaper 8mm tape drive. In 1999, Ecrix released their first product, the VXA
VXA
VXA is a tape backup format originally created by Ecrix and now owned by Tandberg Data. After the merger between Ecrix and Exabyte, VXA was produced by Exabyte Corporation...
tape drive. In 2001, Ecrix and Exabyte merged, giving Exabyte access to Ecrix's VXA Packet Technology tape drive format.
Demise
- On 30 June 2006, Exabyte announced that they are looking for a buyer.
- On 30 August 2006, Tandberg DataTandberg DataTandberg Data GmbH is a company focused on data storage products, especially streamers, headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. They are the only company still selling drives that use the QIC and VXA formats, but also produce LTO along with autoloaders, tape libraries, NAS devices, RDX Removable Disk...
announced that they were buying Exabyte's assets for 28 million USD. - The acquisition was completed on 20 November 2006.