Yes you can. In fact, it's often better than 3:1, at least with AIX files.
The best I've gotten so far is 8.5:1 (yes, that's 85GB on a 10GB cart):

A00178   ATCTAPEARCH  TLDS_3590    85,217.0   95.8    Full

(All Oracle tablespaces with mostly empty space, to be fair), But I'd say my
average is between 3:1 and 4:1 on AIX, and 1:1 to 1.5:1 on WinNT files. I'm
not sure why WinNT files don't compress as well.

Supposedly, there is a new 3590 upgrade that has even higher capacity, but I
do not know if it also requires new tapes. Anyone have info??

Thanks,
-Scott
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
    L. Scott Emmons    | CableData R&D Center - El Dorado Hills, CA, USA
Staff Software Engineer|Systems Administration, Systems Development Dept
    (916) 939-6088     |  Views and content are my own, not CableData's

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On
> Behalf Of
> Reinhold Wagner
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 1:13 PM
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: 3590 compression ratio
>
>
> Folks,
>
> we are new with 3590 and i would like to know: can i trust the
> IBM specs which promise a compression ratio of 3:1 (or even
> 4:1)?
>
> TIA
>
> Reinhold Wagner, Zeuna Staerker GmbH & Co. KG
>