Cylinder rotational speed as well as bit density determines a drive's data-transfer rate. In DDS-3, the cylinder ran at 4,000 rpm. The benefit of increased transfer rates is decreased backup times. With fewer hours available to perform backups and the amount of data to be backed up increasing dramatically, the time required to complete a system backup is a primary concern among IT professionals. The Scorpion 40 helps solve this problem with its ability to back up an entire 40-Gbyte compressed volume in approximately two hours instead of the five hours required by the previous generation of DAT drives.
Most tape drives require a dedicated connection with the host computer during data transfer.
This connection is not available for data transfers between the host and any other device on the SCSI bus until the ongoing tape command has been successfully completed. For a system with many SCSI devices, this can seriously slow the system's operation and performance. DDS-4 tape drive allows commands to be sent to other peripherals during a tape operation, improving the performance of the entire system. While data is being transferred from the host and passed through the compression engine, the drive can keep streaming data onto the tape, even when the SCSI bus is busy with another device. This increases backup rates and reduces tape wear.