On May 23, 2007, at 3:21 PM, Paul Zarnowski wrote:

... LTO2+ has variable speed technology,
which helps, but I think only to a limit.  I think there may still be
a point where if the data is being read too slowly, the drive will
stop streaming.

From what I've read, drives can reliably reduce speed only to about
50%, so speed-matching is a very limited thing.  Collocation and
concerted reclamation of serial media need to be in effect to keep
restorals as efficient as possible.  Reclamation is usually thought
of as a means of supplying the scratch pool, but its value as a
restoral performance aid needs to also be kept in mind.

   Richard Sims