In March, IBM made an important announcement regarding the discontinuation of the manufacturing of 3592 Gen 1 and Gen 2 Media.
As a result, several tape cartridges have been discontinued as follows
- IBM 18P7534 - 3592 JA 300GB
- IBM 18P7538 - 3592 JW 300GB WORM
- IBM 24R0316 - 3592 JJ 60GB Economy
- IBM 23R9830 - 3592 JB Extended 700GB
- IBM 23R9831 - 3592 JX Extended WORM 700GB
This development has implications for three specific tape drives: the J1A, TS1120 E05, and TS1130 E06 drives. If you happen to own any of these drives, you'll find that compatible tape cartridges are no longer being manufactured. Your only option in this case is to upgrade to the TS1140 drive, which can both read and write in Gen2 format and read JA format.
However, if you already have a newer generation tape drive like the TS1140, TS1150, or TS1160, you won't encounter this problem. These newer generation drives are compatible with the latest 3592 tapes. If you're in Dubai, UAE, and in need of IBM 3592 tapes, feel free to reach out to us. We still have some remaining stock of JA, JB, and JJ tapes available, and we would be happy to assist you.
