advanced lossless data compression (streamer) (ALDC)

Advanced Lossless Data Compression (ALDC) is a lossless compression technique used in tape drives. The method developed by IBM uses a derivative of the LZ method to compress data without loss.

The compression factor of the ALDC algorithm is influenced by various data parameters.

ALDC is a very efficient compression method that typically achieves compression ratios of 2.5:1, which is about 20% higher than the values achievable with other compression methods.

ALDC is often used in combination with Memory Expansion Technology( MXT), which increases throughput by means of extremely fast compression/ decompression. The ALDC process is used in Advanced Intelligent Tape( AIT), Mammoth drives and Linear Tape Open( LTO), among others.