SEC. 4. TAPE CARTRIDGE — Internal Revenue Bulletin 1999-49

.01 In most instances, IRS/MCC can process tape cartridges that meet the following specifications:

(a) Must be IBM 3480, 3490, 3490E, or AS400 compatible. (b) Must meet American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards, and have the following characteristics:

(1) Tape cartridges must be ¹ ⁄2-inch tape contained in plastic cartridges which are approximately 4-inches by 5-inches by

1-inch in dimension. (2) Magnetic tape must be chromium dioxide particle based ¹ ⁄2-inch tape. (3) Cartridges must be 18-track or 36-track parallel (See Note ). (4) Cartridges must contain 37,871 CPI or 75,742 CPI (characters per inch). (5) Mode must be full function. (6) The data may be compressed using EDRC (Memorex) or IDRC (IBM) compression. (7) Either EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) or ASCII (American Standard Coded Information

Interchange) may be used. .02 The tape cartridge records defined in this revenue procedure may be blocked subject to the following:

(a) A block must not exceed 32,736 tape positions. (b) If the use of blocked records would result in a short block, all remaining positions of the block must be filled with 9s; how ever, the last block of the file may be filled with 9s or truncated. Do not pad a block with blanks. (c) All records, except the header and trailer labels, may be blocked or unblocked. A record may not contain any control fields

or block descriptor fields which describe the length of the block or the logical records within the block. The number of logical records within a block (the blocking factor) must be constant in every block with the exception of the last block which may be shorter (see item b above). The block length must be evenly divisible by 372. (d) Records may not span blocks. .03 Tape cartridges may be labeled or unlabeled. .04 For the purposes of this revenue procedure, the following must be used: Tape Mark:

(a) Used to signify the physical end of the recording on tape. (b) For even parity, use BCD configuration 001111 (8421). (c) May follow the header label and precede and/or follow the trailer label.

Note: Filers should indicate on the external media label and transmittal Form 4804 whether the cartridge is 36-track or 8-track.

SEC. 5. 8MM, 4MM, AND QUARTER INCH CARTRIDGE SPECIFICATIONS

.01 In most instances, IRS/MCC can process 8mm tape cartridges that meet the following specifications:

(a) Must meet American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards, and have the following characteristics. (b) Created from an AS400 operating system only. (c) 8mm (.315-inch) tape cartridges must be 2 ¹ ⁄2-inch by 3 ³ ⁄4-inch. (d) The 8mm tape cartridges must meet the following specifications:

Tracks Density Capacity

1 20 (43245 BPI) 2.5 Gb 1 21 (45434 BPI) 5 Gb

(e) Mode must be full function. (f) Compressed data is not acceptable. (g) Either EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) or ASCII (American Standard Coded Information In terchange) may be used. However, IRS/MCC encourages the use of EBCDIC. This information must appear on the external media label affixed to the cartridge. (h) A file may consist of more than one cartridge, however, no more than 250,000 documents may be transmitted per file or per

cartridge. The filename, for example; ATMTAX, will contain a three digit extension. The extension will indicate the sequence of the cartridge within the file 1 of 3, 2 of 3, and 3 of 3 and would appear in the header label ATMTAX.001, ATMTAX.002, and ATMTAX.003 on each cartridge of the file. .02 The 8mm (.315-inch) tape cartridge records defined in this revenue procedure may be blocked subject to the following:

(a) A block must not exceed 32,736 tape positions. (b) If the use of blocked records would result in a short block, all remaining positions of the block must be filled with 9’s; how

ever, the last block of the file may be filled with 9’s or truncated. Do not pad a block with blanks.

December 6, 1999 614 1999–49 I.R.B.

(c) All records, except the header and trailer labels, may be blocked or unblocked. A record must not contain any control fields or block descriptor fields which describe the length of the block or the logical records within the block. The number of logical records within a block (the blocking factor) must be constant in every block with the exception of the last block which may be shorter (see item (b) above). The block length must be evenly divisible by 372.

(d) Records must not span blocks. (e) No more than 250,000 documents per cartridge and per file. .03 Various COPY commands have been successful; however, the SAVE OBJECT COMMAND is not acceptable. .04 For faster processing, IRS/MCC encourages transmitters to use header labeled cartridges. ATMTAX may be used as a suggested filename.

.05 For the purposes of this revenue procedure, the following must be used: Tape Mark:

(a) Used to signify the physical end of the recording on tape. (b) For even parity, use BCD configuration 001111 (8421). (c) May follow the header label and precede and/or follow the trailer label. .06 IRS/MCC can only read one data file on a tape. A data file is a group of records which may or may not begin with a tapemark, but must end with a trailer label. Any data beyond the trailer label cannot be read by IRS programs.

.07 4mm (.157-inch) cassettes are now acceptable with the following specifications:

(a) 4mm cassettes must be 2 ¹ ⁄4-inch by 3-inch. (b) The tracks are 1 (one). (c) The density is 19 (61000 BPI). (d) The typical capacity is DDS (DAT data storage) at 1.3 Gb or 2 Gb, or DDS-2 at 4 Gb. (e) The general specifications for 8mm cartridges will also apply to the 4mm cassettes. .08 Various Quarter Inch Cartridges (QIC) ( ¹ ⁄4-inch) are also acceptable.

(a) QIC cartridges must be 4� by 6�. (b) QIC cartridges must meet the following specifications:

Size Tracks Density Capacity

QIC-24 8/9 5 (8000 BPI) 45Mb or 60Mb QIC-120 15 15 (10000 BPI) 120Mb or 200Mb QIC-150 18 16 (10000 BPI) 150Mb or 250Mb QIC-525 26 17 (16000 BPI) 525Mb QIC-1000 30 21 (36000 BPI) 1Gb QIC-2Gb 42 34 (40640 BPI) 2Gb