Lenovo IBM TS2900 Product Manual page 3

Giant Magneto Resistive (GMR) head design (LTO Ultrium 7, 6, and 5 tape drives)
IBM LTO Ultrium Tape Drives use GMR head technology with beveled contouring for reducing
striction and friction. This head design was demonstrated in enterprise tape products to help
minimize contact, edge damage, debris accumulation, and wear on the tape as it moves over the
read/write heads.
Tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) head technology (LTO Ultrium 8 tape drives)
IBM LTO Ultrium 8 Tape Drives use TMR head technology, which helps achieve increased storage
capacity and high data integrity.
Digital speed matching
The LTO Ultrium Tape Drives perform dynamic speed matching to adjust the drive's native data rate
as closely as possible to the net host data rate (after data compressibility is factored out). This
matching helps reduce the number of backhitch repositions and improve throughput performance.
Robust drive components optimized for automation environments
To help enhance reliability and prolong the life of the drives, some of the most robust components
available are used, such as an all metal clutch, steel ball bearings in the loader, robust leader block
design, and a single circuit card.
Power management
The power management function of the Ultrium 8, 7, and 6 Tape Drives controls the drive electronics
to be completely turned off or in a low-power mode when the circuit functions are not needed for
drive operation.
Adaptive read equalization
This equalization automatically compensates for dynamic changes in readback signal response.
Dynamic amplitude asymmetry compensation
This compensation dynamically optimizes readback signals for linear readback response from MR
read head transducers.
Separate writing of multiple filemarks
Separate writing of multiple filemarks evokes any write command of two or more filemarks to cause a
separate data set to be written that contains all filemarks after the first filemark. It helps improve
performance if a subsequent append overwrites somewhere after the first filemark. This change helps
prevent the need to rewrite data sets that contain customer data and the first filemark if such an
append occurs.
LTO Data Compression (LTO-DC)
The Ultrium LTO 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 patented "Scheme-
Swapping" compression looks ahead at incoming data and determines the most efficient storage
method (ALDC or pass-through mode) to help optimize data compression and increase 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 holds information about
that specific cartridge, the media in the cartridge, and the data on the media. The storage capacity of
the Generation 8, 7, and 6 LTO-CM is 16320 bytes, which is double capacity of Generation 5 LTO-
CM 8160 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 Tape Drive uses SARS to help isolate failures between media and hardware. SARS uses
the cartridge performance history that is saved in the CM module and the drive performance history
that is kept in the drive flash EEPROM to help determine the likely cause of failure. SARS causes the
drive to request a cleaner tape, mark the media as degraded, and indicate that the hardware is
degraded.
IBM TS2900 Tape Autoloader for Lenovo 3