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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hal Campbell who wrote (3859)	11/19/1998 4:02:00 PM
From: Glenn Perry	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

I don't know much about partitioning technology, but I do not believe partitioning is a licensed technology. It is merely a method of separating the data on a tape or disk. The partitioning scheme the DST utilizes might be a result of the helical scanning technology used. I'll try to find out more later. I used to back-up an ancient ComputerVision CADDS 4X mainframe CAD workstation set-up on 1/4" magnetic tape. Appending a tape (adding a few files to an existing backup) took forever. You had to load the tape, then it would slowly read thru the entire tape to find the end of data location. It would write the files, rewind to the section and read to verify the write process. Then you had to retension the tape by fast-forwarding to the end, then rewinding to the beginning. You could never add a few files to an existing directory on the tape, that would destroy the data after that section. And high-speed searches were impossible. You had to read the whole tape to get to a file at the end. The DST system incorporates a linear track to aid in searches.

To: Hal Campbell who wrote (3859)	11/20/1998 2:39:00 AM
From: Gus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

Hal, I think partitioning is a feature inherent in a helical scan recorder. Because the data rate is decoupled from tape speed, virtually all helical scan recorders contain fairly simple software logic that allows the partitioning of a cassette into up to 256 logical volumes. Probably many proprietary ways to achieve this. I don't think AXC receives royalties from its patents related to data storage, or do they? Glenn correctly pointed out the various limitations of linear tape recorders. Check out the virtual tape servers from IBM, Storagetek, and Sutmyn. VTS basically involves putting a RAID in front of the tape backup library so it can function as a disk cache AND allow the more efficient use of the tape library since the data is first compressed and arranged in logical volumes on the disk front-end before it is transferred to tape. VTS is part of IBM or Storagetek or Sutmyn's unified storage product for the largely captive mainframe market. Compaq, tho, is financing Storagetek's R&D to bring VTS to the open systems market as part of its comprehensive storage lineup. Gotta go. Later, Gus