Boosts Capacity, Performance and Data Management Capabilities

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 19, 1999 — Sony Electronics today announced the start of OEM customer shipments for its second-generation Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) tape system. AIT-2 offers higher capacity and performance over the previous generation, AIT and provides improved data access and data management through the use of an enhanced Memory-in-Cassette feature.

The AIT-2 system offers customers the option of two cartridge capacities. The 50GB native capacity cartridge (100GB with compression) is ideal for users that require maximum capacity on a single cartridge. A 36GB cartridge (72GB compressed) is also available, featuring the performance advantages of AIT-2, plus quicker average access time to data at a lower price point. Both can be read by AIT-2 drives at a 6MB/sec. sustained transfer rate (12MB/sec. with compression). AIT-2 drives are also fully read and write backward-compatible with AIT-1 media.

"Sony recognized early on with the DDS tape format, the necessity of providing customers with a solid migration path for their tape investment," said John Woelbern, senior marketing manager of tape streamer products for Sony Electronics' Component Company. "We've carried this tradition over to the AIT format and have demonstrated that we don't just define roadmaps, we deliver products."

The AIT-2 internal drive provides a new standard for mid-range tape storage solutions. It achieves outstanding capacity, performance, and reliability in a compact 3.5-inch form factor for a suggested list price of $4,995.

According to Woelbern, Sony achieved new capacity and performance features by implementing key technological advances in recording heads, media formulation and mechanism design. The AIT-2 drives incorporate Sony patented Hyper Metal™ laminate heads, which provide higher signal output than conventional heads, thereby allowing the AIT recording density to be increased by 50 percent. This higher recording frequency, together with longer tape length and a higher drum speed, enable a doubling of both capacity and data transfer rates.

The most unique feature of the AIT format is Sony's innovative Memory-in-Cassette (MIC) drive interface system, which consists of a 64Kbit memory chip built into the AIT-2 data cartridge. The MIC-2 chip contains the tape's system log, search map and other user-definable information, allowing the drive to advance at high speed directly to any file on the tape without the need to read positioning information from the tape. The ability of the MIC to support multiple partitions and multiple load points drastically reduces the average access time to data to fewer than 30 seconds, compared to an average of more than 70 seconds for conventional, competing technologies.

The SDX-500C internal AIT-2 drive, incorporating an Ultra SCSI, single ended and low voltage differential (LVDS) interface, is currently shipping to key OEMs. General availability shipments will begin in May at a suggested list price of $4,995, ¾ the same price announced for AIT-1 in 1996. All AIT drives come with a three-year limited warranty.

Contacts
Jim Leal
Sony Electronics
(408) 955-4469
jim_leal@mail.sel.sony.com

Pat Kelly
Mueller/Shields
(415) 487-7132
pkelly@muellershields.com