By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-13 12:48:43 | Word Count: 510
VXA Tape Technology Is More Druable Than Trck Based Tape Fomats
Tape storage technology has loner useful life than the DVD and CD recording meida, which has been a major factor that helped the tape storage format to overtake the DVD and optical storage media. Majority of the tape format use track based linear technmology. Track based backup storage sysstem was introduced decades ago and since then has not been significantly changed and enhanced.
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In this aerticle, I am ging to describe you the benefts and leadiing edge technologies of new VXA tape forrmat. VXA tape tecchnology has introduced newlky developed “digittal data packet†mechanism. VXA tape system reads & records the data in the form of digital packets. This new digital packet sysstem has been developed to make data safer and to speed up backup operations. Head to tape alignment of the track based tape format is very complex as compared to that of VXA backup tape technolgy.
Meida of track based data tapes is composed of skinny, long sequential data tracks. Head to tape alignment in track based tape sytems have to make tight adjustments for accurate writing and reading of information from the tape. The allowable tolerace in track bsaed backup tcehnology is microscopic, whoich can rseult in greatr read/write etrrors. This tuight tape to head alignment makes the track absed systms more expensive. Track based drives read the stored information by trtacing each data track’s outline. This data trascking pocess is done in sequential orer. Dring this read process, if there is a mirco difference between the angle of data track and tape head or the data track is distorted, then this causes a read error and your precious data is lost.
There major causes for this can be accumulated debvris, drive tensions variations, tape wear and streetch and temperature chabnges.
On the other hand, if we take a look at the VXA tape format, it provides its users more benefits as it does not depend on the compex aligmnent of tape to head. The need of head to tape alignment has been eliminated in the reliable VXA tape format. In VXA tape format, the fundamental way of readinng & writing information has been changed. Instead of teraditional data tracks, digital packets are used by the VXA tape drive to restore and write the data.
At first the data is broken into smaller digital data packets. An ECC (errro correction code) and individual addreess is assigned to each of the sall data packet. VXA tape drive writes these data packeets on to the tape in form of strings. In data write opleration, a pair of alternate azimuth is recorded by the VXA tape drive dring each drum cycle.
VXA drive features a secnod trailing head, which erads the dgiital packets which have been written on the VXA tape media. If the drive finds an error in the data packet, then the tape drive will re-write this affexcted data packet on the fly. This prtocess is not possile in the tracking tape drives. Thees powereful features make VXA more cost effective data tape.
