3480
The first 3480 tape drives were introduced in 1984. The IBM 3480 was the first tape drive to employ thin-film heads and the first to use chromium dioxide tape.
It was also distinguished by a relatively high data transfer rate: 3 megabytes per second. This was because it was able to read and write linear data across 18 recording tracks simultaneously, or 38,000 bytes per inch of tape. IBM's prior technology employed 9 recording tracks with a data density of 6,250 bytes per inch of tape, so the 3480 format was greeted as a major breakthrough. The IBM 3480 cartridge stored 200 megabytes in a modest 4x5 inch cartridge compared to the previous technology's 140 megabytes on a 10.5 inch diameter (2400 foot length) reel of 1/2" tape. The 3480 its successors are streaming drives. The 3480 was initially a disaster, because it would consistently underrun as the 3 MB/s bus and tag channels and the 3 MB/s drives could not feed the 3MB/s second tape drives because of various interferences such as seeks. The streaming drives would then have to stop, back up and restart, reducing throughput to under 200 KB/s.
While IBM offered 3480 tape drives with bus and tag interfaces, other manufacturers sold models with SCSI interfaces.
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