Editing Linear Tape-Open (section)

=== Birth of LTO ===
Seeing an opportunity, IBM, HP and [[Seagate Technology|Seagate]] formed the LTO Consortium,<ref>{{Cite web |title=LTO Ultrium: Reliable and Scalable Open Tape Storage Format |url=https://www.lto.org/ |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=Ultrium LTO |language=en-US}}</ref> which introduced a more open format focusing on the same mid-range market segment.<ref name="Ultrium announcement" /> Much of the technology is an extension of the work done by IBM at its Tucson lab during the previous 20 years.<ref name="IBM storage history" />

In 2000, and around the time of the release of LTO-1, Seagate's magnetic tape division was spun off as Seagate Removable Storage Solutions,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seagate Removable Storage Solutions Holdings: No Action, Interpretive and/or Exemptive Letter of March 7, 2003 |url=https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/seagate030703.htm |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=www.sec.gov}}</ref> later renamed [[Certance]], which was subsequently acquired by Quantum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mearian |first=Lucas |date=2004-10-22 |title=Quantum buys Certance for $60M |url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2567230/quantum-buys-certance-for--60m.html |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=Computerworld |language=en}}</ref>

==== Unrealized variations ====
Initial plans called for two distinct LTO formats:
# Ultrium - with half-inch tape on a single reel, optimized for high capacity, and 
# Accelis<ref name="Licensing" /> - with 8&nbsp;mm tape on dual reels, optimized for fast access.

Despite the initial plans, only Ultrium was ever produced. So, in common usage, LTO refers to just the Ultrium form factor.

Another proposed variation was to have different length tapes. The first generation of Ultrium was going to be available with four types of cartridges, holding 10&nbsp;GB, 30&nbsp;GB, 50&nbsp;GB, and 100&nbsp;GB. However, only the full length 100&nbsp;GB tapes were ever produced.<ref name="EMTEC" />