VXA Tape Drives employ Packet Technology

The VXA tape drive backup format originally created by Ecrix is now owned by Tandberg Data. After the merger between Ecrix and Exabyte, VXA was produced by Exabyte Corporation. On November 20, 2006, Exabyte was purchased by Tandberg Data who has since stopped further development of the format.

Exabyte and Ecrix describe the data format as "packet technology". Since VXA is based on helical scan technology, data is written across the tape from side to side in helical strips. The novel part of VXA packet technology is that each stripe starts with a unique packet ID and ends with an ECC packet checksum. As each stripe is written to tape, it is immediately read back to verify that the write was successful. If the write was not 100% successful the packet can be rewritten at another point on the tape without stopping. When the data is read back, the packets are reassembled into a "buffer" by their packet ID. The buffer has 3 additional ECCs to ensure data integrity. Another aspect of VXA is that there are 2 read heads for each stripe, slightly offset in relation to each other to allow for more flexibility in reading tapes written by other drives. Due to the relatively slow tape speed inherent to helical scan technology, the drive is able to stop and start the tape much more quickly to avoid the need to backhitch.

How to Choose the Best Motherboard For Your Computer System

The computer motherboard is a key internal part of a computer system. If the CPU or processor is considered as the computers brain then the motherboard can be thought of as the heart of the computer. Although the motherboard does not boost the speed of a computer, it plays a pivotal role for the overall functionality and features of a computer system. It can at times be a really daunting task to choose the best motherboard for your computer. For getting the best output from a motherboard you should follow some of the below strategies that will help you to find out the best motherboard for your computer.

Try to find out as much as you can about the brand name or manufacturer name while choosing a motherboard. A motherboard from a well known company gives many added features like a good warranty or product quality, so try to get a motherboard from well known and reputable company. You must also make sure about the availability of technical support from the manufacturer so when you need it, it is then available. Tech support is crucial here as it is needed during troubleshooting. Among the manufacturers to consider, Tyan, Asus, Intel and Soyo. They are the market leaders and have a positive brand image among consumers.

After brand selection you have to focus on the compatibility of your motherboard with your processor. Different manufacturers provide a variety of processors such as Celeron PPGA, Pentium III, AMD Athlon and AMD K6-3. These processors need specific types of motherboards. The compatibility of the motherboard with a particular processor is the most important factor to consider.

Advanced graphics port or AGP is an appealing feature for the gamer and users who are interested in graphic design. AGP allows quicker communication between the video card and the computer thus increasing the frame rate of graphics programs and video games. So if you are a gamer or have enthusiasm about graphics design, you should choose a motherboard with higher AGP performance.

The number of PCI slots in a motherboard are an important criteria to consider when choosing a good motherboard. Plenty of PCI slots allows for the attachment of ethernet cards, sound cards or modems and for future expansion. The more PCI slots that exist in the motherboard the more ports you will have to connect such devices. Also do consider the number of USB ports on the motherboard as these are also needed to connect with modems, mice and with other devices. For video capturing and editing, you should also have a firewire port. So make sure you have a firewire port if you are interested in video capturing or editing.

While choosing your chipset, you should bear in mind the memory type that is compatible with your selected motherboard. Compatibility of the motherboard with high performance RAM is also important. For getting better performance always choose the motherboard that is compatible with all the components of the computer.

Before purchasing a motherboard you must make sure all important features are reviewed that you need. You can browse the motherboards manufacturer's website to get all the important information related to what you will need. You can download the manual from the manufacturer's website and compare the features on various motherboards. So do consider everything covered above and make sure you get the all the information you need to end up with the best motherboard for your computer system needs.

Related Brands 
IBM
HP Hewlett Packard
Dell
Compaq
Intel Corporation
Toshiba
Gateway
Sun Microsystems

About SD Card

SD (Secure Digital) card is about the size of a postage stamp and weights approximately two grams. SD card looks similar in size to a Multi Media Card but is smaller than older memory card types such as the Smart Media card and the Compact Flash card. SD cards are available with storage capacities as high as 4 gigabytes. The SD card was jointly developed by Matsushita, SanDisk, and Toshiba. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard. SD cards are more rugged than traditional storage medias. SD adapters allow the physical conversion of smaller SD cards to work in a larger physical slot, and basically are passive devices that connect the pins from the smaller SD card to the pins of the larger SD adapter.

 

  flash memory cards, microsd memory cards, SD Card

WiFi, Wireless-N USB Adapter

Every one is cutting the wires. You see this with how we have WiFi every where. It is in our laptop computers, desktop computers and especially in our cell phones or internet phones. You see less voice calling and more online tasks being completed using wireless internet (WiFi) connections.

In many cases our desktop computers or laptops with standard PCI or Mini PCI wireless cards do not provide a stable connection for the reason of low wireless reception. To increase the reception we use external antennas.

But we have an other option which is more versatile,  that is having a Wireless USB Adapter in ones gadget kit.  In short, by using an USB wireless adapter, you can have around 60% better performance over the built-in WiFi that you find in laptops and desktop.

Iomega Jaz Disk Drives have lost their sizzle

The Jaz drive was a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company in 1995. The product has since been discontinued. The Jaz disks were originally released with a 1 GB capacity (they were also 540 MB, but it was unreleased) in a 3½-inch form factor, which was a significant increase over Iomega's most popular product at the time, the Zip drive with its 100 MB capacity. The Jaz drive used only the SCSI interface (the IDE internal version is rare), but an adapter known as Jaz Traveller was available to connect it to a standard Parallel Port. The capacity was later increased to 2 GB through a drive and disk revision in 1998, before the Jaz line was ultimately discontinued in 2002.

Internal and external 1GB Iomega Jaz drives with media.

10598   Iomega

Combo Drive aka Combination Drive

A Combo Drive is a type of optical drive that combines CD-R/CD-RW recording capability with the ability to read (but not write) DVD media. The term is used almost exclusively by Apple Inc. as a name for the low-end substitute for their high-end SuperDrive, which was designed to both read and write DVD and DVD recordable media. The device was created as a mid-range option between a CD burner and a DVD burner, which at the time the Combo drive was introduced was generally an expensive option costing in excess of US$300 a unit.

Combo drives are becoming less and less common on new systems, though they do occasionally appear in lieu of CD-only drives on low-end computers and business computers to lower production and sale costs. The cost difference between a Combo drive and DVD burner has been steadily declining in recent years, so most new PCs (except for the low-end budget computers) have a DVD burner (which also reads and writes CDs).

In current Apple computers, none contain Combo Drives. As of October 2008, the MacBook comes with a SuperDrive as standard, and as of March 2009, the Mac mini comes with a SuperDrive as opposed to the usual Combo Drive

Related Brands
Dell
IBM
HP Hewlett Packard
Compaq
Toshiba
Apple
Lenovo
Panasonic

Floppy Disk Drives are older removable storage devices.

Floppy Disk Drives aka Flexible Disk Drives are conceptually a more primitive version of the USB or (Universal Serial Bus) we use today.  The most common type of floppy disk drive is the 3.5 inch drive,  followed by 5.25 inch and then the 8 inch drive which was produced in the 1960’s to 1970’s. Although 8 inch drives are obsolete, some people still use these drives.  A 3.5 inch floppy disk is a thin-light weight diskette that can fit in a regular sized pocket.  The back end of a floppy disk drive has a port (i.e. connector) that connects the disk with the motherboard. It is best to purchase external floppy drives that are USB based so you can move them from system to system.

Today most people find it very convenient to use USB drives rather than floppy disk drives. Basically, USB drives are physically very small compared to floppy disk drives and its mass storage capacity ranges beyond or higher than 2Gb.

LTO Tape Drives - Terabytes on your desktop?

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With a dizzying array of formats for tape drives, it can be daunting for business or home users to decide on the right backup solution for his or her business. After you search on-line for tape drives, you may see esoteric names like AIT, Mammoth, VXA, Data8, 8mm, DDS, DAT, 4mm, SLR, QIC, Ditto, SAIT, Travan, Magstar, DLT, SDLT, ADR, TX-2, and therefore the list goes on! No wonder why it is thus so confusing for people to decide when considering information storage backup solutions.

One widespread format adopted by several corporations, is the LTO format or standard. LTO stands for Linear Tape Open. LTO technology utilizes a magnetic tape cartridge that is four inches square cartridge and has a thickness of half an inch thick. There are 3 firms that started the LTO Consortium: HP, IBM, and Certance (was Seagate and now is Quantum).

In the earlier days of tape storage throughout the mid Eighties, the DLT format was the de-facto half inch cartridge standard in the market. Then the LTO format was released in an effort to displace the present DLT format. The similarity of size and form factor of the new LTO half-inch cartridges makes it easier for users of robotic tape libraries to migrate from DLT to LTO libraries.

LTO Ultrium is often used for the name of this open format technology since every generation will increase its native storage capability. LTO-1 has 100GB, LTO-2 has 200GB, LTO-3 jumps up to 400GB, LTO-4 has 800GB, and LTO-5 has 1500GB (1.5 Terabytes). Do you know what a Terabyte is?

New options are being added with every generation. The new LTO-4 and LTO-5 have encryption capabilities so tape cartridges have the info on them safely locked from intrusion by using Advanced Encryption which is  called AES Encryption methodology 256 bit. Starting with LTO-5, the fifth generation, there's currently partitioning. By dividing up the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) into totally different partitions, this permits faster access times and additionally improved information management.

Future generations of LTO will keep increasing the storage capacity. One day, one cartridge can hold multiple TERABYTES of information.

Related LTO Brands
HP Hewlett Packard
IBM
Compaq
Dell
Quantum
Imation
Tandberg Data
Sun Microsystems

LTO Tape Drives – Terabytes on your desktop?

With a dizzying array of formats for tape drives, it can be daunting for business or home users to decide on the right backup solution for his or her business. After you search on-line for tape drives, you may see esoteric names like AIT, Mammoth, VXA, Data8, 8mm, DDS, DAT, 4mm, SLR, QIC, Ditto, SAIT, Travan, Magstar, DLT, SDLT, ADR, TX-2, and therefore the list goes on! No wonder why it is thus so confusing for people to decide when considering information storage backup solutions.

One widespread format adopted by several corporations, is the LTO format or standard. LTO stands for Linear Tape Open. LTO technology utilizes a magnetic tape cartridge that is four inches square cartridge and has a thickness of half an inch thick. There are 3 firms that started the LTO Consortium: HP, IBM, and Certance (was Seagate and now is Quantum).

In the earlier days of tape storage throughout the mid Eighties, the DLT format was the de-facto half inch cartridge standard in the market. Then the LTO format was released in an effort to displace the present DLT format. The similarity of size and form factor of the new LTO half-inch cartridges makes it easier for users of robotic tape libraries to migrate from DLT to LTO libraries.

LTO Ultrium is often used for the name of this open format technology since every generation will increase its native storage capability. LTO-1 has 100GB, LTO-2 has 200GB, LTO-3 jumps up to 400GB, LTO-4 has 800GB, and LTO-5 has 1500GB (1.5 Terabytes). Do you know what a Terabyte is?

New options are being added with every generation. The new LTO-4 and LTO-5 have encryption capabilities so tape cartridges have the info on them safely locked from intrusion by using Advanced Encryption which is  called AES Encryption methodology 256 bit. Starting with LTO-5, the fifth generation, there’s currently partitioning. By dividing up the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) into totally different partitions, this permits faster access times and additionally improved information management.

Future generations of LTO will keep increasing the storage capacity. One day, one cartridge can hold multiple TERABYTES of information.

Related LTO Brands
HP Hewlett Packard
IBM
Compaq
Dell
Quantum
Imation
Tandberg Data
Sun Microsystems

Iomega Jaz Disk Drives have lost their sizzle.

The Jaz drive was a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company in 1995. The product has since been discontinued. The Jaz disks were originally released with a 1 GB capacity (they were also 540 MB, but it was unreleased) in a 3½-inch form factor, which was a significant increase over Iomega's most popular product at the time, the Zip drive with its 100 MB capacity. The Jaz drive used only the SCSI interface (the IDE internal version is rare), but an adapter known as Jaz Traveller was available to connect it to a standard Parallel Port. The capacity was later increased to 2 GB through a drive and disk revision in 1998, before the Jaz line was ultimately discontinued in 2002.



Internal and external 1GB Iomega Jaz drives with media.



10598   Iomega