IBM 3592

IBM 3592

Company type	Product line
Industry	Data storage
Founded	2003
Founder	IBM
Products	Tape drives and magnetic tape storage media
Parent	IBM

The IBM 3592 lineup consists of high-performance tape drives and magnetic tape storage media designed for enterprise use, created by IBM. The first model in this series, product number 3592, was launched under the codename Jaguar. The TS1120 drive also carried this designation. , the newest release is the TS1170. This series replaces the IBM 3590 drives but lacks backward compatibility. It offers native tape cartridge capacities up to 50 TB and data transfer speeds reaching 400 MB/s. In August 2023, IBM unveiled the TS1170 featuring 50TB cartridges, which are more than two and a half times larger than those of LTO-9.

Following the design lineage of the 3590 and IBM 3480, the format employs half-inch tape housed within cartridges measuring 4 by 5 by 1 inch, each containing a single reel; the take-up reel is located inside the drive itself. Due to their high speed, robustness, longevity, and cost-effective media, 3592 drives continue to be widely sought after.

Starting with the TS1120 model, all drives include integrated encryption processing controlled by system software such as z/OS Security Server. Earlier versions depend on encryption managed through server-based applications.

Drives

	Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4	Gen 5	Gen 5A	Gen 6	Gen 7	Gen 8
Product Name	3592	TS1120	TS1130	TS1140	TS1150	TS1155	TS1160	TS1170	TS1180
Product Code	3592-J1A	3592-E05	3592-E06	3592-E07	3592-E08	3592-55F (FC) 3592-55E (Ethernet)	3592-60F	3952-70F (FB) 3952-70S (SAS)	Template:Tba
Release date	2003	2005	2008	2011	2014	2017	2018	2023	Template:Tba
Native capacity	300 GB	700 GB	1 TB	4 TB	10 TB	15 TB	20 TB	50 TB	80 TB
Max uncompressed speed	40 MB/s	100 MB/s	160 MB/s	250 MB/s	360 MB/s	360 MB/s	400 MB/s	400 MB/s	1000 MB/s
Compression capable?	Yes (3:1)
WORM capable?	Yes
Encryption capable?	No	Yes
LTFS capable?	No			Yes
Max. number of partitions	1 (no partitioning)			4

Cartridges

The IBM 3592 tape format allows for significant cartridge reuse across various drive generations, minimizing the need for frequent media replacement in large-scale archives. Older tapes can be reformatted to accommodate higher capacities by increasing track density, although linear bit density is constrained by tape coating technology and physical limitations. For instance, a 'JA' cartridge initially designed for a capacity of 300 GB can be reformatted to hold up to 640 GB when used with a TS1130 drive. More recent cartridges such as 'JB' support greater linear densities owing to advancements in coating materials.

IBM 3592 tape cartridges				Capacity when formatted in
Gen	Type	Code	Length	3592 J1A	TS1120	TS1130	TS1140	TS1150	TS1155	TS1160	TS1170
1	RW	JA	610 m	300 GB	500 GB	640 GB
	WORM	JW	610 m	300 GB	500 GB	640 GB
	RW, short	JJ	246 m	60 GB	100 GB	128 GB
	WORM, short	JR	246 m	60 GB	100 GB	128 GB
2	RW	JB	"825 m		"700 GB	"1 TB	"1.6 TB
	" WORM	" JX	"825 m		"700 GB	"1 TB	"1.6 TB
3	" RW	" JC	"880 m		"4 TB	"7 TB	"7 TB	"7 TB
	" WORM	" JY	"880 m		"4 TB	"7 TB	"7 TB	"7 TB
	" RW, short	" JK	"146 m		"500 GB	"900 GB	"900 GB	"900 GB

RW	JD	1,072 m					10 TB	15 TB	15 TB
JZ	1,072 m					10 TB	15 TB	15 TB
JL	281 m					3 TB	3 TB	3 TB

RW	JE	1163 m							20 TB
JV	1163 m							20 TB
JM	320 m							5 TB
RW	JF									50 TB

Notes

• The TS1150 model does not support reading or writing on Gen 1 or Gen 2 cartridges.
• The TS1140 drive can read Gen 1 tapes and Gen 2 tapes formatted for the TS1120 but only writes to Gen 2 tapes in the TS1130 format.
• The TS1170 is compatible exclusively with the latest Type F (JF) cartridge and does not support earlier cartridge generations.

See also

• Magnetic-tape data storage
• Linear Tape-Open, a popular tape format

External links

• IBM Solutions for Tape Storage
• IBM: Five Decades of Storage Innovation
• Compatibility Matrix for Read/Write Cartridge Tape Drives
• Magstar Reference by PC Magazine