Sony SAIT1-500 – Sony SuperAIT (SAIT) 500GB / 1.3TB Data Cartridge Tape

Specifications:

600m AME, half-inch wide tape, single reel cartridge, R-MIC auxiliary memory

Native Capacity: 500GB / Compressed Capacity: 1.3TB (assuming 2.6:1 data compression)

Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape continues to be one of the key enabling technologies for a wide range of industry-accepted tape storage and recording applications, including Sony’s innovative SAIT format.

AME tape used by SAIT can read and write data reliably at very high densities through the use of pure cobalt magnetic material. Magnetic Particle (MP) media,
used by conventional half-inch tape formats, is limited by particle size in the magnetic layer to achieve higher cartridge capacities. AME media used by SAIT
imposes no such limitation and can enable SAIT to achieve more than twice the capacity of other half-inch tape formats. Also, AME tape’s use of a
“Diamond-Like Carbon” (DLC) protective layer provides superb durability and long archival life. Twenty times tougher than a standard oxidation layer, DLC
dramatically improves abrasion resistance and overall media and mechanism durability. Another contributor to SAIT performance is the Memory In Cassette
(MIC), a 64 Kbit solid-state memory chip that stores the cartridge’s system log and file search information. This information can be used immediately by the
drive, enhancing data access, improving media management and reducing overall latency. SAIT incorporates Remote-MIC (R-MIC), which allows the tape drive to
access valuable cartridge statistics without loading, rewinding or physically handling the tape, so tape wear and tear is reduced. AME’s extraordinary magnetic properties, storage density and durability are key to tape applications in high-duty-cycle enterprise storage.