History (2003): Super AIT

This article was published by the Museum of Obsolete Media.

Super Advanced Intelligent Tape (SAIT) (2003-2010)

Super Advanced Intelligent Tape (SAIT) was a tape format designed for data backup or archiving, developed by Sony and released in 2003 as a variant on Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT). 

SAIT used half-inch tape in a cartridge format (similar to the DLT and LTO formats that it competed with) and helical scanning.

The first generation, SAIT-1, offered storage of 500GB uncompresssed (1.3TB compressed) on 600 metres of tape.

The second generation, released in 2006, offered 800GB uncompressed storage on 640 meters of tape. 

SAIT used Sony’s Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape to enable high-density recording.

At the time of its launch, it was the largest-capacity tape format available.

Like AIT, SAIT has a ‘Memory in Cassette’ chip in the cartridge that keeps relevant information about the tape and this, along with high data transfer rates (30MB/s for the first generation), helped improve the speed of the drives.

Sony controlled the SAIT format, and no other manufacturers produced drives or tapes. In 2010, Sony announced the discontinuation of the AIT and SAIT product lines, and renewed collaboration with Hewlett-Packard on further development of the DDS tape format.