IBM 3590 - Manual (Page 99)

Chapter 7. 3590 High Performance Cartridge Tape and
Extended High Performance Cartridge Tape
The 3590 tape drive has a bidirectional read/write head with a recording
format of 256 tracks for Exx models and 128 tracks for Bxx models. Both
series of models concurrently processes 16 tracks per group. The bidirectional
head writes 16 tracks from the load point to the physical end of tape. It then
writes 16 tracks from the physical end of tape back to the load point. To
eliminate the rewind operation, fully written tapes are always positioned at
the load point.
Attention: Do not degauss a cartridge tape. Degaussing the tape will erase
the servo tracks and make the cartridge unusable. Run a Data Security Erase
if the data on the tape needs to be physically erased. This physically
overwrites the data on the tape without damaging the servo tracks.
Figure 19 is for illustration purposes only. Note that items
4 and 5 are
dependent on the supply source.
The following lists the individual components of the High Performance
Cartridge Tape:
v
1 Leader block (blue for High Performance Cartridge Tape and green for
Extended High Performance Cartridge Tape)
v 2 Reel of magnetic tape
Figure 19. IBM 3590 High Performance Cartridge Tape
© Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2001 79