Sony Delivers 1.3TB SAIT Drives to OEM Customers

SAN FRANCISCO-- Expanding upon its successful mid-range AdvancedIntelligent Tape technology family, Sony Electronics is now shippingproduction units of its first-generation SAIT drives and media to tapelibrary automation OEMs.

With the ability to store up to 1.3 terabytes (TB) of compresseddata (500 gigabytes native) on a half-inch tape cartridge, SAIT-1 isstaking its claim as the industry's highest capacity tape drive and thefirst available product to break the 1TB capacity barrier. Theenterprise-class drive also features a sustained transfer rate of up to78 megabytes (MB) per second (30 MB/sec native) for efficient datarecording and fast data recovery.

Sony expects that its OEM partners and Sony's internal businessunits will offer automated SAIT-1 solutions for sale beginning thisspring. Leading tape library manufacturers, such as ADIC, Qualstar andSpectra Logic, have expressed their interest to support the integrationof SAIT drives and media into half-inch tape automation solutions.Later this year, Sony is also expected to introduce an SAIT version ofits PetaSite tape library system.

SAIT-1 libraries will be available in a number of configurations,with a 1,000-cartridge library capable of storing up to 1.3 petabytesof data. With the number of companies managing a petabyte or more ofdata, which is expected to multiply in the next two years, anultra-scalable, cost-effective storage solution is a necessity.

According to Steve Baker, vice president for Tape Storage Solutionsat Sony Electronics' Business Systems and Solutions Company, SAITtechnology enables Sony and its OEM partners the ability to offerstorage solutions not feasible with today's half-inch tapetechnologies.

"SAIT represents a new level of high-capacity, high-performance tapebackup with scalability limits that surpass previous industryachievements, which help maintain tape's cost per gigabyte advantageover disk technology," Baker said. "Customers working with largedatabases, video production and broadcast applications, e-commercetransaction processing and storage, and medical imaging, have eagerlyawaited a product like SAIT, which combines high data throughput withunparalleled capacity and low cost of ownership."

SAIT drives leverage Sony's reliable AIT architecture in a 5.25-inchextended drive footprint. They combine the data density advantages ofhelical-scan recording with the longer and wider tape usuallyassociated with linear tape drives to achieve a much higher datastorage capacity. For connectivity with a variety of networks, SAIT-1drives come equipped with either an Ultra-SCSI or Fibre Channelinterface. The Fibre Channel port supports up to 2Gbps, so SAIT drivescan provide high-speed backup functions within a storage area network(SAN).

As one of the largest recording media manufacturers in the world,Sony is also producing SAIT-1 tape cartridges for the industry. SAIT-1media is based on Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape technology.Through the AME process, nearly 100 percent active magnetic material isevaporated onto a substrate and then coated for exceptional durabilityand results in exceptional data integrity.

"The magnetic properties, storage density and durability of AME tapetechnology make it a natural choice for SAIT media," Baker added."We've been able to leverage existing manufacturing capabilities todevelop SAIT-1 media, and we're confident it will be of the highestquality and durability."

In addition to Sony, Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics Industries,Ltd. (MKE) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MEI), knownfor Panasonic-brand products, will provide the market with alternativemanufacturing sources for SAIT drives and media, respectively.

Based in San Jose, Calif., the Tape Storage Solutions Division ofSony Electronics' Business Systems and Solutions Company marketsstorage solutions through OEM, commercial and industrial distributors,retailers and resellers. For additional information about Sony storage,visit Sony's website at http://www.sony.com/news or http://www.storagebysony.com.For information specific to The AIT Forum or SAIT, please visit http://www.saittape.com.