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IBM 3480 family
The 3480 tape format is a magnetic tape data storage format developed by IBM. The tape is one-half inch (13 mm) wide and is packaged in a 4 in × 5 in × 1 in (102 mm × 127 mm × 25 mm) cartridge. The cartridge contains a single reel; the takeup reel is inside the tape drive.
Because of their speed, reliability, durability and low media cost, these tapes and tape drives are still in high demand. A hallmark of the genre is transferability. Tapes recorded with one tape drive are generally readable on another drive, even if the tape drives were built by different manufacturers.
Tape drives conforming with the IBM 3480 product family specification were manufactured by a variety of vendors from 1984 to 2004. Core manufacturers included IBM, Fujitsu, M4 Data, Overland Data, StorageTek and Victor Data Systems (VDS). Various models of these tape drives were also marketed under other brands, including DEC, MP Tapes, Philips, Plasmon, Qualstar, Tandem, and Xcerta.
IBM designated all versions of 3480 and 3490E tape drives as members of the 3480 Product Family.
Tape drives built for the 3480 formats were initially designed for IBM System/370 computers. Therefore, the first 3480 tape drives communicated through a bus and tag interface. Later models were able to take advantage of ESCON and high voltage SCSI interfaces. The advent of the SCSI interface made it possible to connect 3480 family tape drives to personal computers, which enabled mainframe-to-PC data exchange.
The first 3480 tape drives were introduced in 1984. The IBM 3480 was the first tape drive to employ magnetoresistive (MR) heads and the first to use chromium dioxide tape.
One way the format stands out from earlier formats is that the gap between blocks is too small for the drive to stop the tape within it, so the drive must have a write buffer. When the drive does stop the tape during writing because the host is not sending data, it overshoots the gap, backs up the tape, and stops it well before the gap. During the seconds this is happening, if the host has resumed sending data, the drive stores it in the buffer. It then accelerates the tape, reaching speed before the place where the next block needs to be written, and proceeds to write the buffered data there.
Because it is not necessary to accelerate and decelerate the tape within the interblock gap, a 3480 tape drive does not need vacuum columns, and that allows it to be much smaller than tape drives for earlier formats.
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IBM 3480 family AI simulator
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IBM 3480 family
The 3480 tape format is a magnetic tape data storage format developed by IBM. The tape is one-half inch (13 mm) wide and is packaged in a 4 in × 5 in × 1 in (102 mm × 127 mm × 25 mm) cartridge. The cartridge contains a single reel; the takeup reel is inside the tape drive.
Because of their speed, reliability, durability and low media cost, these tapes and tape drives are still in high demand. A hallmark of the genre is transferability. Tapes recorded with one tape drive are generally readable on another drive, even if the tape drives were built by different manufacturers.
Tape drives conforming with the IBM 3480 product family specification were manufactured by a variety of vendors from 1984 to 2004. Core manufacturers included IBM, Fujitsu, M4 Data, Overland Data, StorageTek and Victor Data Systems (VDS). Various models of these tape drives were also marketed under other brands, including DEC, MP Tapes, Philips, Plasmon, Qualstar, Tandem, and Xcerta.
IBM designated all versions of 3480 and 3490E tape drives as members of the 3480 Product Family.
Tape drives built for the 3480 formats were initially designed for IBM System/370 computers. Therefore, the first 3480 tape drives communicated through a bus and tag interface. Later models were able to take advantage of ESCON and high voltage SCSI interfaces. The advent of the SCSI interface made it possible to connect 3480 family tape drives to personal computers, which enabled mainframe-to-PC data exchange.
The first 3480 tape drives were introduced in 1984. The IBM 3480 was the first tape drive to employ magnetoresistive (MR) heads and the first to use chromium dioxide tape.
One way the format stands out from earlier formats is that the gap between blocks is too small for the drive to stop the tape within it, so the drive must have a write buffer. When the drive does stop the tape during writing because the host is not sending data, it overshoots the gap, backs up the tape, and stops it well before the gap. During the seconds this is happening, if the host has resumed sending data, the drive stores it in the buffer. It then accelerates the tape, reaching speed before the place where the next block needs to be written, and proceeds to write the buffered data there.
Because it is not necessary to accelerate and decelerate the tape within the interblock gap, a 3480 tape drive does not need vacuum columns, and that allows it to be much smaller than tape drives for earlier formats.