| Magneto-Optical
(M-O) drives, manufactured exclusively by Sony,
provide 9.1GB per platter in the
same 5¼-inch
form factor as Ultra Density Optical.
The initial
release of Magneto-Optical in 1988 offered 650MB
per platter. Capacities increased to 1.3GB in 1993,
to 2.6GB in 1996, to 5.2GB in 1998, and finally to
the current and last generation of 9.1GB in 2001.
Current 9.1GB drives are backward read compatible
to the original 650MB media and are backward write
compatible to the 3rd generation 2.6GB media.
For applications
requiring authenticity and protection against deliberate
or accidental modification or destruction of data,
M-O media is available in a WORM (Write-Once Read-Many)
format. For applications that do NOT require storing
data permanently,
M-O media is available in an RW
(Rewriteable) format. Using rewriteable M-O, data
files may be erased and overwritten to re-claim
storage capacity on the disk.
With higher reliability,
time-to-access data significantly faster than tape,
and a shelf life in excess of 30 years, Magneto-Optical
media provides long-term, reliable storage
to a wide variety of applications.
When choosing M-O
as a data archive medium, automated libraries offer
capacities that range from 220GB to 5.8TB of archival
storage in a single library, and can be hosted by
any Windows, UNIX, or Linux operating system. Magneto-Optical
libraries are available from manufacturers
such as Plasmon and Hewlett-Packard.
Although
Magneto-Optical has long been a standard for data
archiving applications within regulated industries,
Ultra Density Optical (UDO) offers greater performance
and data security at a lower total-cost-of-ownership. | 
