tape library (TL)
Tape libraries (TL) are storage systems with one or more tape drives and up to a thousand magnetic tapes. They are used as tertiary storage for backup and archiving. Depending on the design and size, they can be smaller systems consisting of one tape drive and a changer for up to ten magnetic tapes, the autoloaders.
Larger systems, usually operating as Automated Tape Library( ATL), can have several dozen tape drives into which robotic arms load magnetic tapes from magnetic tape magazines. Such magazines may well contain several thousand magnetic tapes. Tape library configurations can be scaled as needed.
Tape libraries are the ideal hardware platform for data volumes of 5 terabytes( TB) or more and can manage storage capacities of up to several petabytes( PB). The cartridges of a tape library (TL) are equipped with barcodes or cartridge memories( CM) and a barcode reader for faster handling.