Tape drives built for the 3480 were initially designed for mainframe computers. Therefore, the first 3480 tape drives communicated through a bus and tag interface. Later models were able to take advantage of ESCON and high voltage SCSI interfaces. The advent of the SCSI interface made it possible to connect 3480 family tape drives to personal computers, which enabled mainframe-to-pc data exchange.

The IBM 3480 was the first tape drive to employ thin-film heads, as well as the first to use chromium dioxide tape.

It was also distinguished by a relatively high data transfer rate: 3 megabytes per second. This was because it was able to read and write linear data across 18 recording tracks simultaneously, or 38,000 bytes per inch of tape. As IBM's prior technology employed 9 recording tracks and achieved only 1600/6,250 bytes per inch of tape, the 3480 format was greeted as a major breakthrough: 200 megabytes of data per tape cartridge as opposed to the 100 megabytes on the 6250 1/2" tape reels. While IBM offered 3480 tape drives with bus and tag interfaces, other manufacturers sold models with SCSI interfaces.

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