Ultrium 3 Tape Drive enhancements:

• Dual stage 16 channel head actuator – designed to provide precision head alignment to help support higher track density and improved data integrity and backwards compatibility with previous LTO generations.
• Independent tape loader and threader motors and positive pin retention – designed to help improve drive reliability.
• Graceful dynamic breaking – designed to maintain tension to help prevent stretching or breaking the tape and loose tape wraps.
• Larger internal buffer – the internal buffer size has been doubled over the Ultrium 2 to 128 MB.
• Highly integrated electronics using IBM engineered copper technology – designed to provide for a more reliable drive.

The IBM TotalStorage 3580 Tape Drive is an external stand-alone or rack-mountable unit and contains a Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium 3 tape drive designed for the heavy demands of backup tape storage. It is supported for Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) attachment to IBM System p and p5, IBM System i and i5, IBM eServer xSeries, HP, Sun, Windows, and Linux servers.

The 3580 Tape Drive Model L33 incorporates third-generation IBM LTO Ultrium technology. The 3580 Tape Drive Model L33 offers the following significant improvements over the Ultrium 2 Tape Drive:

• Maximum tape drive throughput data rate performance is more than doubled, up to 80 MB/sec native data transfer rate. Data tracks are now written 16 at a time. IBM Ultrium 3 Tape Drives can read and write, at 8 data tracks at a time, LTO Ultrium 2 Data Cartridges at Ultrium 2 rates, and read LTO Ultrium 1 Data Cartridges at Ultrium 1 rates.
  Note: Although the 3580 Tape Drive provides the capability for excellent tape performance, other components of the system may limit the actual performance achieved. Also, although the compression technology used in the tape drive can typically double the amount of data that can be stored on the media, the actual degree of compression achieved is highly sensitive to the characteristics of the data being compressed.
• The tape cartridge capacity is doubled over the Ultrium 2 Data Cartridge up to 400 GB native physical capacity (800 GB with 2:1 compression), with the use of the IBM TotalStorage LTO Ultrium 400 GB Data Cartridge. This is achieved by increasing the linear density, the number of tape tracks, and the media length. The tape itself is an advanced metal particle tape developed to help provide durability and capacity.
• Ultrium 2 cartridge compatibility – The Ultrium 3 Tape Drive can read and write on Ultrium 2 cartridges.
• SCSI Ultra160 LVD attachment – The Model L33 comes with a SCSI Ultra160 LVD attachment, for connection to a wide spectrum of open system servers. They are supported on AIX, OS/400, i5/OS, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Linux, and other open systems.
• Dual stage 16 channel head actuator – designed to provide precision head alignment to help support higher track density and improved data integrity
• Independent tape loader and threader motors and positive pin retention – designed to help improve the reliability of loading and unloading a cartridge, and to retain the pin even if tension is dropped. With an independent loader motor coupled with the positive pin retention, the tape threads with a higher level of reliability.
• Adaptive read equalization – automatically compensates for dynamic changes in readback signal response caused by cartridge interchange and head wear.
• Dynamic amplitude asymmetry compensation: dynamically optimizes readback signals for linear readback response from magneto resistive read head transducers.
• Larger internal data buffer – There is a 128 MB internal data buffer in the Ultrium 3 Tape Drive as compared to a 64 MB internal data buffer in the Ultrium 2 Tape Drive.
• Highly integrated electronics using IBM engineered copper technology – designed to reduce the total number of components in the drive, lower chip temperatures, and reduce power requirements, helping to provide for a more reliable drive. The generation 3 drive electronics also incorporate on-the-fly error correction of soft errors in the memory arrays in data and control paths.
• Graceful dynamic breaking – In the event of power failure, reel motors are designed to maintain tension and gradually decelerate instead of stopping abruptly, helping reduce tape breakage, stretching, or loose tape wraps during a sudden power-down.

Proven IBM LTO Ultrium features enhanced in IBM LTO Ultrium 3 Tape Drive include:

• Servo and track layout technology – There are 704 data tracks in Ultrium 3 verses 512 data tracks in Ultrium 2. High bandwidth servo system features a low-mass servo to help more effectively track servo bands and improve data throughput with damaged media in less-than-optimal shock and vibe environments.
• Surface Control Guiding Mechanism – IBM’s patented Surface Control Guiding Mechanism is designed to guide the tape along the tape path in the IBM 3580 Tape Drive. This method uses the surface of the tape, rather than the edges, to control tape motion. This results in less tape damage (especially to the edges of the tape) and tape debris, which comes from the damaged edges and can accumulate in the head area.
• Magneto Resistive (MR) head design – Use of flat lap head technology in MR heads for Ultrium 3 helps minimize contact, debris accumulation, and wear on the tape as it moves over the read/write heads.
• Digital speed matching – The Ultrium 3 Tape Drive is designed to perform dynamic speed matching (at one of five speeds, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 MB/sec) to adjust the drive’s native data rate as closely as possible to the net host data rate (after data compressibility has been factored out). This helps reduce the number of backhitch repositions and improves throughput performance. Speed matching on Ultrium 3 ranges from 40 to 80 MB/sec versus 17.5 to 35 MB/sec on Ultrium 2.
• Robust drive components optimized for automation environments – Drive designed using some of the most robust components available, such as: 1) all metal clutch, 2) steel ball bearings in loader, 3) robust leader block design, 4) single circuit card, to help enhance reliability and prolong the life of the drive.
• Power management – The Ultrium 3 Tape Drive power management function is designed to control the drive electronics to be either completely turned off or to be in a low-power mode when the circuit functions are not needed for drive operation.
• Adaptive read equalization – automatically compensates for dynamic changes in readback signal response caused by cartridge interchange and head wear.
• Dynamic amplitude asymmetry compensation: dynamically optimizes readback signals for linear readback response from magneto resistive read head transducers.
• Separate writing of multiple filemarks – Separate writing of multiple filemarks is designed to cause any write command of two or more filemarks to cause a separate data set to be written containing all filemarks after the first. This feature has two advantages, first it helps improve performance if a subsequent append overwrites somewhere after the first filemark. Second, write of multiple filemarks typically indicates a point where an append operation might occur after the first of these filemarks. This change helps prevent having to rewrite datasets containing customer data and the first filemark in cases if such an append occurs.
• LTO Data Compression (LTO-DC) – The Ultrium 3 uses LTO-DC which is an implementation of a Lempel-Ziv class 1 (LZ-1) data compression algorithm. LTO-DC is an extension of Adaptive Lossless Data Compression (ALDC) and an improvement over previous IBM lossless compression algorithms. IBM’s patented “Scheme-Swapping” compression is designed to look ahead at incoming data, and determines the most efficient storage method (either ALDC or pass-thru mode) to help provide optimal data compression and increased data throughput.
• LTO Cartridge Memory (LTO-CM) – Contained within the LTO Ultrium data cartridge is the LTO-CM, which is a passive, contactless silicon storage device that is physically a part of the cartridge. The LTO-CM is used to hold information about that specific cartridge, the media in the cartridge, and the data on the media. The storage capacity of the LTO-CM is 4,096 bytes. Communication between the drive and the LTO-CM is via a low-level RF field transmitted by the drive to the cartridge.
• Statistical Analysis and Reporting System (SARS) – The Ultrium 3 Tape Drive uses SARS to help isolate failures between media and hardware. The SARS use the cartridge performance history saved in the CM module and the drive performance history kept in the drive flash EEPROM to help determine the more likely cause of failure. SARS can cause the drive to request a cleaner tape, to mark the media as degraded, and to indicate that the hardware has degraded.

With support for IBM LTO Ultrium-format tape data cartridges, the 3580 Tape Drive provides an excellent migration path from digital linear tape (DLT or SDLT), 1/4-inch, 4mm, or 8mm tape drives. They can be a cost-effective solution for backup, save-and-restore, and archiving functions as the entry point for the family of IBM Ultrium tape products.