Breakthrough Features Of Exabyte Vxa-2 Tape Drive

By Author: Frank Miller
Total Articles: 598
Comment this article

The IT managers have to make proactive decisions to meet the stringent data-retention laws and industry regulations in a cost effective manner. VXA tape storage formats continues to gain more success and popularity among the small & mid-range business enterprises. VXA is a revolutionary backup storage format that breaks free of the reliability and data security limitations of today’s backup tape technologies. VXA has introduced a highly innovative and secure method for performing the read and write operations. Data packet technology is used by VXA format that is many times superior, reliable and cost effective than the other tape storage technologies.

Exabyte is a media technology leader. Exabyte VXA-2 drive is intelligently engineered to deliver unprecedented media reliability and storage performance at a reasonable cost. VXA-2 drive can efficiently record 160GB information on Exabyte VXA-2 tape. Compressed transfer speed of VXA-2 drive is 12 MB/sec. The previous generation VXA-1 is also read and write compatible with Exabyte VXA-2 drive. You can use the Exabyte VXA cleaning cartridge (11100209) that ...
... delivers excellent results.

The other traditional linear and helical scan drives use the streaming technique to carry out their operations. These drives read the long string of bytes in a single pass at a fixed tape speed. In order to get maximum operating efficiency, the transfer speed of the host system should be stable and keep the buffer of drive full. A busy SCSI bus or slow host can cease the streaming and force the drive to reverse so that it can resume the write operation. This results in additional stress on the storage media and the overall performance is affected. Such performance degrading situation is called “back hitching”. A reliable solution has been devised by Exabyte which can help to efficiently overcome the common problem of back-hitching. Exabyte VXA-2 drive offers the new advanced “variable speed operation” technology which matches the tape speed with that of the host. This feature helps to reduce the undue stress on the recording media, thereby optimizing the recording performance.

Back hitching is a major factor that accelerates media wear.

VXA drive breaks the data strings into smaller data packets. Afterwards a wrapper of verification is added to the small data packet. These data packets increase the media performance, assure absolute data integrity and lower the cost per GB.

Best selling VXA-1 and VXA-2 tape cartridges are:

IBM VXA2 tape
24R2137

Exabyte VXA-2 tape
11100221

IBM VXA 1 tape
24R2134 and 24R2136

Exabyte VXA-1 tapes
11100206, 11100200, 11100100 and 11100103

The Exabyte VXA-2 drive features four heads that are arranged in two pairs. Each of the pair has one write and one read head. These heads are placed on a rotation drum. The heads read/write the data tracks at an angle to assure greater data precision.

All four heads are used for data reading. The leading pair of head reads the information while the trailing head pair verifiers it. During the write operation, the leading head records the data and verification is done by the trailing head. This intelligent mechanism of Exabyte VXA-2 tape helps to speed up the read/write operations and provide absolute data integrity.

Frank Miller is the Marketing Manager of Backuptape and markets VXA tape and Exabyte VXA-2 tape. He has vast experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping buyers who have the backup needs and guide clients about the technology.

Frank Miller
3984 Washington Blvd #503 Fremont CA 94538
Tel: 888-686-8273
Fax: 888-449-5050
Email: sales@backuptapes.net