IBM TS1160 Tape Drive Model 60E for TS4500 Libraries

TS1160 Tape Drive Model 60E for TS4500 tape libraries delivers increased capacity on new Type E media, reuse of existing Type D media, and 10GB Ethernet host attachment interface for hyperscale and RHEL environments

IBM TS1160 Tape Drive Model 60E delivers a native data rate of 400MB/s, the same load/ready, locate speeds, and access times as TS1160 models 60G and 60F. Model 60E uses a 10GBE host attachment in TS4500 tape libraries and rackmount installations. The 10GBE host attachment interface is optimized for cloud-based and hyperscale environments.

TS1160 tape drives are capable to read and write 20TB capacities on new Type E media and 15TB on existing Type D media (JD/JZ) compared to 10TB with TS1150.

TS1160 also supports JC 4TB format (read only) and JC 7TB format (R/W). Media written in TS1160 format is not readable by TS1150, but is back-portable for reformatting the TS1150 format of 10TB.

Model conversions are also supported to convert TS1155 Model 55E to TS1160 Model 60E.

Note: Model conversions are only supported once in the life of the tape drive. A second conversion would have more than 80% of new components.

TS1160 Model 60E is not compatible with IBM TS7700 or Enterprise Tape Control Unit environments. It supports drive-based data encryption to help protect data. The TS1160-based encryption and associated IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager components are supported in a range of environments, including select IBM Power Systems, IBM System x, and other servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.6 OS.

Key requirements
TS1160 Tape Drive Model 60E is supported in a range of environments, including select IBM Power Systems, IBM System x, and other servers running RHEL 7.6 OS environments.

Planned availability date: October 18, 2019