The Ultrium tape technology is designed for outstanding reliability, top performance, and the lowest cost per GB. The Ultrium format is based on the best existing technologies; open standards allow for increased innovation. The cartridges support all Ultrium tape drives. To ensure backward compatibility with older tape formats, the drives for the LTO Ultrium 7 format can also read and write LTO 6 tapes and read LTO 5 tapes. The LTO 7 format also enables hardware-based encryption for better protection of sensitive information during transport and archiving. The generation (Ultrium 7) has a capacity of up to 15 TB (compressed) and a transfer rate of up to 750 MB/s. It offers the highest level of reliability: 1,000,000 passes, 30 years, and 20,000 load and unload cycles.