IBM has been involved in manufacturing tape media for more than 50 years and has introduced numerous breakthrough technologies that are utilized in tape media for increased performance and effectiveness. IBM in 1928 invented the eighty-column punch card. In the year 1959, IBM introduced the first 729 read-write drive and in 1984 the first cartridge drive IBM 3480 was launched into the market. IBM 3590 enterprise tapes were introduced in 1999 and Read the rest of this entry »

The data tracks in LTO-4 and LTO-3 are 704 and that of ultrium-2 data tracks are 512. The IBM LTO 4 tape drive has new mechanism for the tape’s guidance along tape path. This new mechanism is “surface control guiding” and is patented by IBM. For controlling the tape motion, this new mechanism uses the tape’s surface instead of the edges. In this way the tape debris & tape damage most importantly of the tape edges are reduced. MR (Magneto Resi Read the rest of this entry »

The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by IBM, the talks are in progress, would help IBM in more than one way. At one end, this acquisition would fetch huge benefits for IBM’s services and software businesses, the core business areas of IBM, and on the other hand it would boost IBM hardware revenues and profitability. However the benefits in hardware sector is likely to be dwarfed by the supposed gigantic growth in services and software business.
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