The IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Drive 3592 is designed to provide fast time to data and excellent levels of storage capacity. To support that high-capacity capability, the tape drive uses the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Cartridge 3592.

The 3592 cartridge contains half-inch, advanced metal particle, dual-layer tape. This tape uses a high-quality coating that provides the signal and aerial density margin to store an extremely high capacity of data-up to 300GB (up to 900GB with 3:1 compression), greatly exceeding the capacity available from most other tape media. The tape also features an ultra-smooth surface and uniform magnetic layer less than 0.2 microns thick-both intended to help improve media reliability and tape drive processing times.

Because normal wear and tear can degrade media, the 3592 cartridge offers significant improvements in tape cartridge design-such as enhanced locking pin, hub and clutch assemblies-to help improve durability. The cartridge also minimizes surface defects and uses a precision timing-based servo formatting process to enable higher track densities without increasing error rates. With these design features, the 3592 tape cartridge can help better protect your mission-critical data.
 

Cartridge memory is built into every 3592 cartridge. Each time the cartridge is accessed, the tape drive stores access history and media performance information, enabling data center administrators to better track cartridge usage.

Administrators can label 3592 cartridges with a specified volume serial (VOLSER) number or color-coding to help save time and labor when adding new cartridges into existing inventory. These labels can then be used to create media pools. For additional flexibility, 3592 cartridges can be ordered pre-labeled and initialized or pre-labeled only using the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Media 3599 Models 011 and 012.
 

Special grip points and a form factor similar to 3590 cartridges allow the 3592 tape cartridge to work in an IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Library 3494, where it can reside alongside IBM 3490 and 3590 cartridges. The 3592 cartridge is also designed to work in the StorageTek 9310 Powderhorn Tape Library.

In addition, high-capacity cartridges can help reduce the amount of equipment as well as the number of cartridges and tape mounts required in a data center, helping to lower operational costs throughout the enterprise.