IBM Ultrium Gen 6, Installation And User Manual

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Drive performance
Details about the tape drive processing speed are shown in the following table.
Table 2. Performance rates and times
Native data rate 160 MB/second (with Ultrium 6 media)
Maximum sustained data rate (at maximum compression) 550 MB/second
Burst data rate 600 MB/second
Nominal load-to-ready time 12 seconds
Nominal unload time 17 seconds
Average rewind time 62 seconds
Note: All sustained data rates are dependent on the capabilities of the interconnect, and application software
performance might be slower than the published performance ratings.
By using the built-in data-compression capability of the tape drive, a faster data
rate than the native data transfer rate can be achieved. However, the actual
performance of the drive is a function of many components, such as the host
system processor, disk data rate, block size, data compression ratio, SAS bus
capabilities, and system or application software.
Cartridge compatibility
The tape drive uses the IBM LTO Ultrium 2500 GB Data Cartridge and is
compatible with the cartridges of its predecessor, the IBM Half High LTO Ultrium
5 Tape Drive.
The drive has the following capabilities and limitations:
Note:
To improve system performance, the drive uses a feature called speed
matching to dynamically adjust its native (uncompressed) data rate to the slower
data rate of a server. For more information about speed matching, see “Speed
matching” on page 4.
Table 3. Ultrium cartridge compatibility with Ultrium tape drives
IBM Ultrium
Tape Drive
IBM LTO Ultrium Data Cartridges
2500 GB
(Ultrium 6)
1500 GB
(Ultrium 5)
800 GB
(Ultrium 4)
400 GB
(Ultrium 3)
200 GB
(Ultrium 2)
100 GB
(Ultrium 1)
Ultrium 6 Read/Write Read/Write Read only
Ultrium 5 Read/Write Read/Write Read only
Ultrium 4 Read/Write Read/Write Read only
Ultrium 3 Read/Write Read/Write Read only
Ultrium 2 Read/Write Read/Write
Ultrium 1 Read/Write
Note: The IBM Half High LTO Ultrium 6 Tape Drive reads and writes Ultrium 6
cartridges to Ultrium 6 format and also reads and writes Ultrium 5 cartridges to
Ultrium 5 format, including WORM and Data Encryption.
Chapter 1. Product description
3