In response to demands for greater storage capacity and the ability to accommodate more tapes in a magnetic tape library, Hitachi began shipping the H-6952-1 and H-6952-2 as successors to the H-6951-1 in March 1993.
The H-6952-1 was a space-saving tape library designed for small-scale systems and featured an accessor robot and a library controller. The H-6952-2 was a high-performance tape library intended for large-scale systems and featured dual accessor robots. There were 77 model configurations available to meet each client’s specific system needs by mixing and matching tape bays, which were expandable up to 8,751 cartridges, magnetic tape controllers — up to eight controllers could be installed, and between four and 32 magnetic tape drives. And because the magnetic tape units supported the new 36-track formatting, one library could store up to 21 terabytes of data when applying three-times compression.
| Model name | H-6952-1 | H-6952-2 | H-6951-1(for reference) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnetic tape specifications | width: 1/2 inch, length: 165 m / 330 m | width: 1/2 inch, length: 165 m / 330 m | ||
| Number of tape cartridges | 989 — 8,751 | 694 — 6,560 | ||
| Storage capacity [TB] (with three-times data compression) | 0.6 — 21.0 | 0.4 — 3.9 | ||
| Recording density [bytes/inch] | 38,000/76,000 | 38,000 | ||
| Average tape transport time [s] | 10 | 10 | ||
| Onboard components | Library controllers | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Accessor robots | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Magnetic tape controllers | 1 — 8 | 2 or 4 | ||
| Magnetic tape units | 4 — 32 | 4 — 32 | ||
| Entry ports | 1 | 1 | ||
| Exit ports | 1 | 1 | ||
| Max. number of channel connections | 16 | 16 | ||
