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Chapter 5 ATAPI Interface
Page 86 Seagate Travan 40 Product Manual
WRITE (Group 0, Op. Code 0A)
The WRITE command transfers the specified amount of data from the Initiator to the
tape drive. A rewind or other Write process terminating command (e.g., WRITE
FILEMARK with length set to 0) must be issued after the last write command to allow
the drive to finish writing all buffered data.
NOTE: The Imation Travan Cartridge specification requires cartridge conditioning
under specified conditions. Conditioning is achieved by running the tape one
complete end-to-end pass, and retensioning a cartridge when loading is
recommended.
The command terminates when one of the following conditions occurs.
• The Transfer length field in the CDB has been satisfied and the data has been
transferred to the tape drive’s buffer (Buffered Mode).
• The drive failed to find the append point.
• An unrecoverable write error occurred. (Failed after 16 attempts to write the
block correctly.)
• The physical or logical End-of-Media has been reached.
When the command terminates for a reason other than the first, the residue can be
obtained with a REQUEST SENSE command.
CDB for WRITE command
Data Bits
Byte 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Hex
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0A
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FMB 0X
2
3
4
MSB
Transfer Length
LSB
XX
XX
XX
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00
Fixed Block Mode: The Fixed Block Mode (FBM) bit is associated with the Transfer
length field, as indicated below.
Transfer Length: If FBM is set to 1, this number specifies the number of blocks to
be transferred from the Initiator.
NOTE: The drive writes a “frame-oriented” recording format to tape. Data which
does not fill a frame will be retained in the buffer until:
1) enough additional data to fill a frame is received,
2) a terminating command to the WRITE process is received, or
3) Write Buffer Delay Time expires (see MODE SELECT).
Terminating commands are WRITE FILEMARK with IMM set to 0, REWIND,
SPACE, LOCATE, or Load/Unload.
The STT3401A drive will only accept WRITE commands at the Beginning-of-Tape
(BOT), Beginning-of-Partition (BOP) and End-of-Recorded-Data (EOD).