History (1987): Exabyte 8mm

This article was published by the Museum of Obsolete Media.

8mm/Data8 (1987 – late 1990s)

The use of 8mm magnetic tape for data storage was pioneered by Exabyte, and used the same form factor as 8mm tape for video recording (Video8). It is also referred to as Data8 or D8.

It was the first tape format for data storage to use helical-scan technology when introduced in 1987.

Later higher-capacity versions were called Mammoth and Mammoth-2 and used Advanced Metal Evaporated tape.

Sony AIT and Ecrix VXA formats also use 8mm tape but are incompatible.