Abstract: The roaring growth of multimedia data demands cost-effective storage solutions in urgent, so that a near-line storage system based on crossbar switch was presented. High-capacity SATA disk array was used in this system instead of tape library, and connects on-demand with the host was implemented through the crossbar switch instead of manipulator. The storage system model was proposed. The hardware and firmware design of crossbar switch matrix, scheduling policy of the host, address-planning of system port, hardware port and internal switch were respectively introduced. The prototype system showed that the proposed system could meet the demand for massive multimedia data storage.