Technology
Travan uses a linear track technology, with data written onto individual tracks over several successive passes. Fully reading or writing a tape to full capacity may require moving the tape from reel to reel many times. The tape is not attached to the hubs, but is wrapped and held by friction. The tape is prevented from coming off at the ends using small holes punched in the tape, which are detected by optical sensors in the tape drive using a 45-degree mirror inside and a window on the side the cartridge.
It also uses an indirect tension-band drive system, consisting of an elastic band that presses on the exterior of both reels, and also over an idler wheel on the edge of the case. A motor in the drive contacts the idler to move the tape. Because the reels wind and unwind at unequal speeds there is always some slippage occurring when the tape is in motion. Old tapes used many times tend to have a visibly marked stripe down the center of the tape where the band has pressed into the tape.
Unlike some competing technologies such as Digital Linear Tape (DLT) and Linear Tape Open (LTO), Travan technology does not automatically verify data after writing. Data verification must be done separately by the computer operator, to verify data was written successfully. If a separate verify operation is not performed after each backup, it is possible for backups to be found to be corrupt and unusable when the tapes need to be used.
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Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
—Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)