pctechguide.com

  • Home
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Glossary
  • Contact

Travan Tape Storage

While the build quality of QIC/Travan cartridges is superb – making them ideal for long-term storage – for a long time they are more expensive than DAT media. This was especially so for the 8GB/Travan-4 cartridges, which have built-in tape alignment and tensioning, thereby reducing the amount of hardware needed in the drive itself.

By the end of 1998, a TR-5 format was available – offering a capacity of 10GB/20GB and minimum DTR of 1MBps. Storage capacity over the TR-4 format being improved by increasing the number of tracks from 72 to 108.

Somewhat confusingly Imation – the effective custodian of the Travan standard – has used an alternative naming convention since the introduction of its Travan NS (network series) format in 1997. The first Travan NS, the NS8, was equivalent to the TR-4 format. The TR-5 equivalent, the NS20, is servo written and preformatted to the QIC-3220 standard. The servo information cannot be replaced on the cartridge, making it impossible to reformat. Bulk erasing (degaussing) renders the cartridge unusable.

The following table shows the principal characteristics of the various Travan formats to date:

TR-1 TR-2 TR-3 TR-4 TR-5
Capacity:

Native

Compressed

400MB

800MB

800MB

1.6GB

1.6GB

3.2GB

4GB

8GB

10GB

20GB

DTR:

Minimum

Maximum

62.5 KBps

125 KBps

62.5 KBps

125 KBps

125 KBps

250 KBps

60 MB/min

70 MB/min

60 MB/min

110 MB/min

Tracks 36 50 50 72 108
Data

Density

14,700

ftpi

22,125

ftpi

44,250

ftpi

50,800

ftpi

50,800

ftpi

Compatibility QIC 80

(R/W)

QIC 40

(R only)

QIC 3010

(R/W)

QIC 80

(R only)

QIC 3010/

QIC 3020

(R/W)

QIC 80

(R only)

QIC 3080/

QIC 3095

(R/W)

QIC 3020

(R only)

QIC 3220

(R/W)

TR-4

QIC 3095

(R only)

A TR-6 format is slated for availability in early 2001. This is expected to incorporate the VR2 (variable rate randomiser) technology developed by Overland Data. Essentially, VR2 will be used to incorporate PRML channel encoding, as used in hard disk technology, into linear tape drives. It is expected to give a 1.5 to two-fold increase in capacity and performance without requiring changes to the tape path design, recording heads or media.

  • QIC Mammoth
  • Travan Tape Storage
  • DAT Tape Storage
  • 8mm Tape Storage
  • AIT – Advanced Intelligent Tape – family of tape storage
  • DLT Tape Storage
  • Super DLT Tape Storage
  • ADR Tape Technology
  • Tape Storage Linear Tape Open
  • VXA Tape Storage technology
  • Robotic Tape Storage Applications
  • Tape Storage Mammoth

Filed Under: Tape Storage

Latest Articles

The AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs)

The gaming experience for PC users, through the AMD A-series APU, the innovation to accelerate the desktop processor where it blends the multi-core CPU together with the AMD Radeon graphics in a single power-efficient chip. The AMD A10-7850k, with 12 compute cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU), together with … [Read More...]

Ransomware

What is Ransomware

We talk a lot about different viruses and malware on PC Tech Guide. But, there is one particular strain of malware that is becoming increasingly troublesome. It is called ransomware. Simply put, ransomware is software that holds your PC hostage until you pay money to get your computer or files back. … [Read More...]

Modulation

Communication channels like telephone lines are usually analogue media. Analogue media is a bandwidth limited channel. In the case of telephone lines the usable bandwidth frequencies is in the range of 300 Hz to 3300 Hz. Data communication … [Read More...]

Gaming Laptop Security Guide: Protecting Your High-End Hardware Investment in 2025

Since Jacob took over PC Tech Guide, we’ve looked at how tech intersects with personal well-being and digital safety. Gaming laptops are now … [Read More...]

20 Cool Creative Commons Photographs About the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to have a huge impact on our lives. The market value for AI is estimated to have been worth $279.22 billion in 2024 and it … [Read More...]

13 Impressive Stats on the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to become much more important in our everyday lives. Many businesses are using it as well. While he has created a lot of … [Read More...]

Graphic Designers on Reddit Share their Views of AI

There are clearly a lot of positive things about AI. However, it is not a good thing for everyone. One of the things that many people are worried … [Read More...]

Redditors Talk About the Impact of AI on Freelance Writers

AI technology has had a huge impact on our lives. A 2023 survey by Pew Research found that 56% of people use AI at least once a day or once a week. … [Read More...]

11 Most Popular Books on Perl Programming

Perl is not the most popular programming language. It has only one million users, compared to 12 million that use Python. However, it has a lot of … [Read More...]

Guides

  • Computer Communications
  • Mobile Computing
  • PC Components
  • PC Data Storage
  • PC Input-Output
  • PC Multimedia
  • Processors (CPUs)

Recent Posts

Android Antivirus Software

Many people think that just because they are using a mobile device, they do not need a antivirus client.  In today's world of smart phones you could … [Read More...]

Hard disk (hard drive) construction

Hard disks are rigid platters, composed of a substrate and a magnetic medium. The substrate - the platter's base material - must be non-magnetic and … [Read More...]

Top 10 Must-Have PC Accessories

Well, if you own a PC, you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got the right accessories for it. It’s no good just owning a PC these days - those … [Read More...]

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 About | Privacy | Contact Information | Wrtie For Us | Disclaimer | Copyright License | Authors