IBM 3480 Family - 3490E

3490E

IBM introduced the 3490E tape drive in 1991. Its 36-track head was able to record 800 megabytes of data on a single tape. The IDRC option allowed it to record up to 2400 megabytes on a single extended tape. The last 36-track tape drive manufacturer, VDS, discontinued production late in 2004, after IBM announced that it would no longer supply 36-track thin film tape heads.

3490E tape drives were available from a variety of manufacturers with bus and tag, ESCON, or high voltage SCSI interfaces, and were capable of data transfer speeds up to 20MB per second.

While 3490E data cartridges are the same dimensions as 3480 cartridges, the tape media is the same only longer. 3490E tape is optimized for 36-track recording heads, instead of 18-track recording heads. Nevertheless, some 3480 tape drives can record on 3490E media.

Some 3490E tape drives are able to read tapes recorded by 3480 tape drives. Others can also write tapes that can be read by 3480 tape drives. But many 3490E tape drives can only read/write 36-track tapes.