IBM Half High LTO
Gen 4 SAS Tape Drive
Midrange storage for demanding backup, archival
and regulatory compliance requirements
Highlights
● Midrange LTO cartridge capacity of
up to 1.6 TB1
● Provides data transfer rates of up to
240 MBps1to help shorten backup times
● Utilizes AES-256 data hardware
encryp-tion with no impact to drive performance to help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data
● Adaptive data compression, Digital
Speed Matching (DSM) and a 256 MB buffer improve drive performance and storage capacity
● Backward-compatible with IBM Ultrium
LTO-3 and LTO-2 media to protect prior investments
● Future-proofed via forward read/
write media compatibility with IBM Ultrium LTO-5 drives
Today’s enormous growth in data volume is being fueled by business continuity, regulatory compliance and information lifecycle management initiatives. Whether your business uses high-performance blade, rack-mount, or tower IBM® System x® and BladeCenter® systems, archiving and retrieving data in a fast, dependable and consistent manner is mission-critical to your business.
The IBM Half High LTO Gen 4 SAS Tape Drive is the 4th-generation Linear Tape-Open (LTO) offering, introducing larger storage capacities, increased performance, and advanced security features to effectively meet the demanding backup, archival and regulatory compliance requirements of your System x and BladeCenter environments.
Greater capacity and speed
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5.25" half-height internal form factor for integration into IBM System x® tower servers and external IBM 1U rack-mount enclosures.
To further increase performance, 14-speed Digital Speed Matching (DSM) will adjust the drive’s native data rate to better match the data rate of the server. This feature, along with a 256 MB buffer, will improve data throughput and reduce tape repositions and wear for times when the host data rate is less than optimal.
In addition, an IBM-patented algorithm to optimize compres-sion speed is used. The algorithm is designed to look ahead at incoming data, determine the most efficient storage method and synchronously swap the data compression scheme dynami-cally between ALDC (adaptive lossless data compression) and a pass-thru mode to help provide optimal data compression and increased data throughput.
Securing your data
Businesses proactively focus on securing sensitive customer and business data. With increasing regulatory and compliance requirements, the need to secure data for audit and compliance purposes has become critical. LTO Generation 4 tape drives utilize AES-256 encryption and support write-once, read-many (WORM) cartridges to help protect your data.
Investment protection
Compatibility with Ultrium LTO-3 and LTO-2 media eases the introduction of these high-performance tape drives into your environment and protects your prior investments in LTO
technology and media. This drive is backward read-and-write-compatible with Ultrium 3 media and read-compatible with Ultrium 2 media. However by using Ultrium 4 media, which provides up to double the capacity of Ultrium 3 media, you will shorten restore times, reduce the number of tapes required and improve the backup window. In addition, LTO-4 media can be read and written to by LTO-5 drives, eas-ing your road to future upgrades.
Greater data protection with reliability
and serviceability
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IBM 3628 half-height external unit for standalone table top or rack shelf applications.
and extracting tapes after a sudden power-down. In addition, the Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) channel includes an adaptive channel calibration feature. This enables the drive to compensate for variations in the media, recording function, and read/write head to optimize interchangeability between LTO drives from other vendors.
For enhanced serviceability, it also captures error information. These errors are stored in the drive’s flash memory so it can be recalled when needed to minimize troubleshooting time.
Low total cost of ownership
Even with the increased speed and capacity this efficient tape drive consumes less power than previous generations of IBM LTO tape drives—which is ideal for “green” storage envi-ronments and reduced operating costs.
Tape drives are inherently economically and environmentally more friendly than any other archival and backup storage devices, with lower power requirements, lower cooling require-ments, and lower costs per gigabyte.
The high performance of the HH LTO 4 Tape Drive, com-bined with the high capacity of the Ultrium 4 tape cartridge, can reduce the number of drives and cartridges required in a storage or archive environment. Together, these attributes all serve to reduce your overall total cost of ownership.
Features of fourth-generation drives
Building upon the highly successful line of IBM LTO tape drives, the IBM Half High LTO Gen 4 SAS Tape Drive intro-duces new features that increase throughput, capacity and relia-bility over previous generations of LTO Gen 4 drives, while also providing capabilities to secure critical data.
Advanced features
● 256-bit AES Encryptionto give users the ability to address
security concerns by writing encrypted data to the
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● A 16-channel headincreases data throughput to support
higher drive speeds.
● IBM-patented timing-based servo positioningwrites data to
tape with greater precision, supporting the use of narrower tracks on the 16-channel head and increasing linear density by 31 percent when compared to LTO-3.
● Advanced tape loader and threader mechanismimproves
error recovery when loading, threading and unloading a cartridge. Independent loader and threader motors, coupled with positive pin retention, will help to retain the pin during a mis-pick. This independent control can improve load and thread reliability.
● “On-the-fly” adaptive channel calibrationallows the drive to
adjust to variations in the media and read/write head while calibrating the channel, which can improve higher data throughput rates and data integrity.
● Redesigned electronicsbased on IBM copper technology
enables improved performance while providing lower overall power consumption over previous generations of IBM LTO drives.
● Superior power managementimproves heat dissipation and
provides greater operational efficiency than previous genera-tion IBM LTO drives. The drive operates in two modes: write mode and idle mode (for when the drive is not in use).
● Digital Speed Matching (DSM)is supported on
Ultrium 4 media in increments of 30 MB per second to 120 MB per second. This feature, along with a larger buffer, improves throughput for situations when the host data rate is less than optimal.
● A large 256 MB bufferworks in combination with Digital
Speed Matching to further mitigate the impact of data rate fluctuations, enabling the tape drive to perform at its optimal speed.
● WORM supportto address evolving regulatory initiatives,
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IBM Half High LTO Gen 4 SAS Tape Drive
Form Factor 5.25-inch half-high internal Half-high external
Options # 44E8895 3628N4X/3628L4X (with Nema 5-15p Line Cord)
Capacity per cartridge1 1.6 TB compressed1; 800 GB native
Sustained data transfer rate1 Up to 240 MBps compressed1; 120 MBps native
Media type LTO Ultrium 4, 3 and 2
Data cartridge LTO Ultrium 4 (rewritable 5-pack 46C5359), LTO Ultrium 4 (WORM) Cleaning cartridge Universal cleaning cartridge (49Y9893)
Backward compatibility Read/write-compatible with Ultrium LTO-3 media Read-compatible with Ultrium LTO-2 media
Interface 6 Gbps SAS
Data compression SLDC (LTO data compression per ECMA-321)2
Encryption AES-256
Buffer 256 MB
Data rate matching Digital Speed Matching 30 - 120 MBps
Physical Characteristics
Dimensions (with Bezel) 148 mm W × 42.7 mm H × 210 mm D 213 mm W × 58 mm H × 332 mm D (6 in W × 2 in H × 8 in D) (8.4 in W × 13.1 in H × 2.3 in D)
Weight 1.6 kg (4 lb) 4.3 kg (9.4 lbs.)
Operating environment
Operating temperature 10° to 45° C (50° to 100° F) 10 to 40°C (50 to 104°F) Relative humidity 10% to 80% (non-condensing) 20 to 80% (non-condensing)
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©International Business Machines Corporation 2011 IBM Systems and Technology Group
Route 100 Somers, NY 10589
Produced in the United States of America May 2011
All Rights Reserved
IBM, the IBM logo, BladeCenter and System x are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.
Linear Tape Open, LTO and Ultrium are trademarks of HP, IBM and Quantum in the United States and other countries.
Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
1Based on 2:1 compression 2
Prior to the release of ECMA-321, SLDC (streaming lossless data compression) was known as “LTO-DC.” SLDC uses ALDC as its primary data compression scheme, but also has a pass-thru scheme to avoid the expansion of incompressible data—a problem ALDC and most other compression algorithms encounter.
