Sony SDX-700C, Product Specifications Manual

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14. Appendix G
SONY AIT-3 drive SDX-700 series Ver.2.1 14-16
Medium Format Recognition:
This field is only valid in response to the MODE SENSE command and is set to 03h in order to indicate that the
drive is capable of format and partition recognition. This is non-changeable field. It accepts any values, and
always returns 1.
Partition Sizes:
This field allows the initiator to allocate the capacity for each partition. It will also allow the initiator to reallocate
the capacity of previously partitioned tapes.
The Partition Size specifies the capacity of all partitions in Megabytes (in the case of SDX-700C - see PSUM
field definition). The drive rounds the Partition Size to the next whole group value and then applies an algorithm
which allows for the writing of ECC-3 frames and for RAW error recovery so as to reserve sufficient physical
space on the media for the specified capacity. The minimum space allocated shall be 3050 frames.
If the Additional Partitions Defined and Partition Size fields are set to ZERO the drive will initialize the tape as
Partition 0, spanning the whole length of the tape.
The size of Partition 0 is only valid during MODE SENSE and is ignored during MODE SELECT. And remaining
Capacity belongs to Partition 0.
Note 1: SDX-700C accepts any number including 0FFh for the Parameter List Length in CDB, although the drive
returns valid information only. For example, in case of a single partition, SDX-700C returns 16h bytes of
parameter list (sufficient for one partition size descriptor), even if the host sets 0FFh for the Parameter List
Length in CDB.
Note 2: The Partition Size represents a changeable value, because tapes can be re-initialized. The drive would
return N-1 pieces of partition size descriptors that contents is all 0FFh when N partitions on tape.
Note 3: Last partitions are open-ended partitions, because they are extendible up to the EOT. Consequently, the
size of the last partition can be calculated from the number of remaining frames, excluding the Option
Device Area.
Note 4: The Volume Information Data is stored both into MIC and on tape, after completing a Mode Select Page
11h command. This is so, because the SysLogAlive bits must be valid on the tape, in order to indicate
where the System Log information is.
Note 5: SDX-700C create ODA (Optional Device Area) at all partitions except for the last partition.
Note 6: If ODA is active we can format this tape.