IBM has developed the fastest terabyte storage drive on the market, after Sun released the first terabyte tape drive yesterday.

Big Blue said that the TS1130 drives will be able to write on the terabyte cartridges at a speed of 160Mbps, a 54 per cent improvement in speed over the previous generation of IBM tape drives.

"Today we offer the fastest, highest capacity drive in the market," said Cindy Grossman, vice president of tape and archive at IBM System Storage.

"Tape storage is the most green and cost-effective form of data storage available, and the IBM TS1130 will enable clients to address their growing needs for affordable and robust data solutions."

IBM hopes to target the drives at intensive markets such as financial services, life sciences and public sector companies. The new drives will be paired with IBM's tape virtualisation and encryption offerings.

When it is released in September, IBM plans to charge $39,050 for the TS1130. Companies with existing IBM tape drive systems will be able to upgrade for half that price.