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TRAVAN

Travan is a type of 8 mm magnetic tape cartridge developed by the 3M company, used for the storage of data in computer backups and mass storage. Over time, subsequent versions of Travan cartridges and drives have been developed that provide greater data capacity, while retaining the standard 8 mm width and 750' length. Travan is standardized under the QIC body.

The Travan format competes mainly against the DDS, AIT, and VXA formats.

Contents

Generations

Generation TR-1 TR-2 TR-3 TR-4 TR-5 TR-7
Release date
Data capacity 400 MB 800 MB 1.6 GB 4 GB 10 GB 20 GB
Max speed (MB/s) 0.25 0.25 0.5 1.2 2 4
Media format QIC-80 QIC-3010 QIC-3020 QIC-3095
Min tape length (ft) 750 750 750 740 740 750
Tape tracks 36 50 50 72 108 108
Recording density (ftpi) 14,700 22,125 44,250 50,800 79,800 96,000

TR-1

  • Travan TR-1 cartridges offer a 400 MB native capacity with a 0.25 MB/s transfer rate using the QIC-80 media format.

TR-2

  • Travan TR-2 cartridges offer an 800 MB native capacity with a 0.25 MB/s transfer rate using the QIC-3010 media format.

TR-3

  • Travan TR-3 cartridges offer a 1.6 GB native capacity with a 0.5 MB/s transfer rate using the QIC-3020 media format.

TR-4

  • Travan TR-4 cartridges offer a 4 GB native capacity using the QIC-3095 media format.
  • Travan 8 GB cartridges offer a 4 GB native capacity with a 1.2 MB/s transfer rate.
  • Travan NS8 cartridges offer a 4 GB native capacity with a 1.2 MB/s transfer rate.
  • Imation HP Colorado 5 GB is a 460 ft variation on the TR-4 standard. It offered 2.5 GB native capacity, 1 MB/s transfer rate.

TR-5

  • Travan NS20 cartridges offer a 10 GB native capacity with a 2 MB/s transfer rate.
  • Travan 20 GB cartridges offer a 10 GB native capacity with a 2 MB/s transfer rate.

TR-7

  • Travan 40 GB cartridges offer a 20 GB native capacity with a 4 MB/s transfer rate.

External links

Magnetic Tape Data Storage Formats
Linear Helical-Scan
Three Quarter Inch
(~19 mm)

LINCtape (1962) - DECtape (1963)

Half Inch
(12.65 mm)

UNISERVO (1951) - IBM 7 Track (1952) - IBM 9 Track (1964) - IBM 3480 (1984) - DLT (1984)
IBM 3490E (1991) - IBM 3590 (1995) - LTO Ultrium (2000) - T10000 (2006)

SAIT (2003)

Eight Millimeter
(8 mm)

IBM 3570 MP (1997) - Travan (199x) - VXA (1999)

Exabyte (1987) - Mammoth (1994) - AIT (1996) - M2 (1999)


Quarter Inch
(6.35 mm)

QIC (1972) - SLR (xxxx)

Four Millimeter
(3.8 mm)

DC100 (1976) - DECtapeII (1979)

DDS/DAT (1989)

One Eighth Inch
(3.18 mm)

KC Standard, Compact Cassette (1975)