VXA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VXA is a tape backup format originally created by Ecrix and now owned by Tandberg Data. After the merger between Ecrix and Exabyte, VXA was produced by Exabyte Corporation. On November 20, 2006, Exabyte was puchased by Tandberg Data.

Exabyte and Ecrix describe the data format as "packet" technology as opposed to "linear" technology. This is a variation on helical scan technology. Instead of writing data in continuous, pre-defined linear tracks, data is written in addressible packets along the tape. The claim is that this gives better reliability and error recovery as well as being able to adapt to different data rates.

The VXA format competes mainly against the DDS, SLR, AIT, & DLT-V formats.

Contents 1 Generations 1.1 Overview 1.2 Notes 2 External links

[edit] Generations

[edit] Overview

Generation	VXA-1	VXA-2	VXA-172	VXA-320	VXA-4	VXA-5
Release Date	1999			2005	TBA	TBA
Max Capacity (GB)	33	80	86	160	320	640
Max Speed (MB/s)	3	6	12	12

[edit] Notes

• Data Capacity figures above are for UNCOMPRESSED data. Exabyte assumes a 2x compression factor in their marketing material.
• In 2006 Exabyte released a VXA-172 drive that can be "upgraded" to a VXA-320 drive with a firmware update.

[edit] External links

• ECMA 316 Specification of VXA-1.
• ECMA 222 Specification of ALDC, the data compression standard for VXA-1.
• VXA Alliance

view • talk • edit	Magnetic tape data storage formats
	Linear	Helical-Scan
Three Quarter Inch (~19 mm)	LINCtape (1962) - DECtape (1963)	Sony DIR (19xx) - Ampex DST (1992)
Half Inch (12.65 mm)	UNISERVO (1951) - IBM 7 Track (1952) - IBM 9 Track (1964) - IBM 3480 (1984) - DLT (1984) - IBM 3590 (1995) - T9840 (1998) - T9940 (2000) - LTO Ultrium (2000) - T10000 (2006)	Redwood SD-3 (1995) - DTF (19xx) - SAIT (2003)
Eight Millimeter (8 mm)	Travan (1995) - IBM 3570 MP (1997)	Exabyte (1987) - Mammoth (1994) - AIT (1996) - VXA (1999)
Quarter Inch (6.35 mm)	QIC (1972) - SLR (1986)
Four Millimeter (3.8 mm)	DC100 (1976) - DECtapeII (1979)	DDS/DAT (1989)
One Eighth Inch (3.18 mm)	KC Standard, Compact Cassette (1975) - Datassette (1977)
Stringy (1.58 - 1.9 mm)	Exatron Stringy Floppy (1979) - ZX Microdrive (1983) - Rotronics Wafadrive (1984)