Specifications

108 MDR User Guide
Data Format
The data format on tape is the following:
• Tape header which is a MASTER_TAPE_HEADER structure:
typedef struct {
UINT32 TapeNumber; /* Number of the tape (1 to n) */
UINT32 DataLength; /* Data length on tape in KiB */
} TAPE_HEADER;
typedef struct {
TAPE_HEADER TapeHeader; /* Tape information */
char Name[RECORDING_NAME_MAXLENGTH];
RECORDING Recording; /* Recording information */
} MASTER_TAPE_HEADER;
Where RECORDING_NAME_MAXLENGTH and RECORDING are defined in the MdrDef.h file.
• Recording data saved as raw and compressed data. Data is send to the drive
uncompressed, compressed internally inside the drive (if possible) then saved to the
tape.
Reading a recording to host
Reading a recording from tape(s) to host can be done using SCSI commands to:
1. Open and configure the tape drive (the current block size used is 1kbytes),
2. Read the Tape Header structure from tape,
3. Read raw data from tape(s). Data size on each tape is given by the
TAPE_HEADER
structure) and the number of tapes is computed by subtracting the data length for
each tape,
4. Close the tape drive.
Artisan Technology Group - Quality Instrumentation ... Guaranteed | (888) 88-SOURCE | www.artisantg.com