Sony Delivers Branded AIT-3 Tape Drives

Sony Electronics has announced the availability of its branded Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT-3) drives.

Sony said the new internal and external Sony AIT-3 tape drives have a 3.5-inch form factor and feature 100 gigabytes (GB) of native capacity (260GB with 2.6:1 compression) and a 12MB/sec sustained native transfer rate (31MB/sec with 2.6:1 compression). Like the previous generations, AIT-3 drives are fully read and write backward compatible with AIT-1 and AIT-2 media.

“With the introduction of AIT-3, Sony’s AIT technology now truly offers a scalable migration path from the low-end DDS drive area, right up to the enterprise,” said Steve Baker, vice president of marketing for the tape storage solutions division of Sony Electronics’ Core Technology Solutions Company. “AIT-3 offers companies the ability to standardize their data in one format throughout all levels of the corporation.”

Sony also said the development of AIT-3 illustrates its commitment to double the capacity and performance with each new generation of AIT, while maintaining backward compatibility. In addition, Sony said it has demonstrated a storage areal density capability of 6.5 Gbits/inch, which it hopes will enable the company to extend its AIT roadmap to a sixth generation member before the end of the decade.

“Sony continues to deliver on its commitment to AIT tape technology with AIT-3,” said Robert Amatruda, research manager at IDC. “Companies increasingly demand a tape product with reliability, speed, and high capacity at an affordable price point.”

To correlate with the availability of AIT-3 drives, Sony’s media division has ramped up production to full volume at its Japan and Dothan, Ala. plants.