History (1989): After Aspen, STC and Some Japanese Firms, LMSI in IBM 3480 Compatible Drives

The complexity of the technology of IBM’s 3480 magnetic tape subsystem, 18 tracks and density (38,000bpi), is probably the reasons why there are so few manufacturers of compatible units and why it took them so long to develop these drives.

Since Big Blue launched its model in March 1984, the only manufacturers of compatible drives were Storage Technology (Louisville, KY), Aspen Peripherals Co. (Longmont, CO), bought over by StorageTek, and finally Japanese Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC.

Other drive manufacturers used 3480 cartridges (Cipher for example) but they are not compatible with IBM’s systems.

The last one, in full compatible IBM 3480 cartridges, is Laser Magnetic Storage Inc. (Colorado Springs, CO) a joint-venture between Philips and Control Data, with a model named Independence priced at $15,000 in OEM quantities.

The first units will be produced in 3Q89. The drive takes the space of two 8-inch form factor modules and can be mounted horizontally or vertically.

The first module includes the drive mechanism and the second one the controller that can hold up to 2 drives.

It can operate at 3 or 1Mb/s and has the possibility of automatic switching between both speeds. It features a 2M data buffer. STC, IPI-3 and SCSI interfaces are available.

A 7-cartridge stack loader is offered in option.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠16, published on May 1989.