HP DAT 160 SCSI External Tape Drive Q1574A#AC3 Leaflet

Q5. What is actually the new technology in the DAT160 drive and what 
has been leveraged from the DAT72 drive?  

 

Figure 9. Key components of the DAT160 tape drive 

 

 
In Figure 9, the areas in black indicate where new design was required and these account for 

approximately 25% of the total design of the drive, the other parts of the design involved no change 

or minor change or a “leveraged design” from an existing piece of development work. 
New design areas include: 
• 

The DAT160 media (essentially wider DAT40 media in a new cartridge height) 

• 

Tape path for DAT160 media with 180-degree wrap 
–  DAT72/DAT40 tape path is well defined and proven in millions of drives 

• 

Interface ASICS, SCSI, USB, and SAS 
–  HP designs and develops these ASICS in-house.  
–  DAT72 USB has been shipping for 2 years and LTO Ultrium SAS drives for 1 year.  

• 

Pre-amp to cover both tape formats 

• 

Cartridge sensors to detect which tape path to operate; these were part of the new design and 
worked the first time. 

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