IBM 3590

The IBM 3590 is a series of tape drives and corresponding magnetic tape data storage media formats developed by IBM. The first drive, having the IBM product number 3590, was introduced in 1995 under the nickname Magstar. The 3590 series of tape drives and media are not compatible with the IBM 3592 line of drives that replaced it. They can store up to 60 GB of data (uncompressed). This family superseded the IBM 3480 Family of tape drives popular in 1980s and 1990s.

3592 Series tape

Like the 3480 and 3592 formats, this tape format has half inch tape spooled onto 4-by-5-by-1 inch data cartridges containing a single reel. A takeup reel is embedded inside the tape drive. Because of their speed, reliability, durability and low media cost, the 3590 tape drives are still in high demand. A hallmark of the genre is interchangeability: Tapes recorded with one tape drive are generally readable on another drive, even if the tape drives were built by different manufacturers. Magstar tapes and drives exist in 128, 256 and 384-track versions.

Drives

3590 B Model (3590 B11/B1A), 128 tracks, up to 9 MB/s native data rate. Announced April 1995.^[1]
3590 E Model (3590 E11/E1A), 256 tracks, up to 14 MB/s native data rate. Announced April 1999.^[2]
3590 H Model (3590 H11/H1A), 384 tracks, up to 14 MB/s native data rate. Announced July 2002.^[3]

Notes

Media

3590 High Performance tape

	Tape length (m)	3590 B Model	3590 E Model	3590 H Model
"High-Performance" cartridge	320 m	10 GB	20 GB	30 GB
"Extended High-Performance" cartridge	634 m	20 GB	40 GB	60 GB

Notes

The 320 m long "High Performance" (normal) 3590 cartridges use Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as the base material.
The 634 m long "Extended" 3590 cartridges use Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) as the base material.
3590 media datasheet

References

External links

Magnetic tape data storage formats

Linear

Wide (19 - 25.4 mm)	TX-2 Tape System (1958) IBM 7340 (1961) LINCtape (1962) DECtape (1963)

Half inch (12.7 mm)	UNISERVO (1951) IBM 7 track (1952) 9 track (1964) IBM 3480 (1984) DLT (1984) IBM 3590 (1995) T9840 (1998) T9940 (2000) LTO Ultrium (2000) IBM 3592 (2003) T10000 (2006)

Eight millimeter (8 mm)	Travan (1995) IBM 3570 MP (1997) ADR (1999)

Quarter inch (6.35 mm)	QIC (1972) SLR (1986) Ditto (1992)

"Eighth" (0.15) inch (3.81 mm)	KC standard, Compact Cassette (1975) HP DC100 (1976) Tarbell Cassette Interface (1976) Commodore Datasette (1977) DECtape II (1979)

Stringy (1.58–1.9 mm)	Exatron Stringy Floppy (1979) ZX Microdrive (1983) Rotronics Wafadrive (1984)

Helical

Three quarter inch (19 mm)	Sony DIR (19xx) Ampex DST (1992)

Half inch (12.7 mm)	Redwood SD-3 (1995) DTF (19xx) SAIT (2003)

Eight millimeter (8 mm)	Data8 (1987) Mammoth (1994) AIT (1996) VXA (1999)

Four millimeter (3.81 mm)	DDS/DAT (1989)

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