History (1999): VXA 8mm Backup Tape Format

This article was published by the Museum of Obsolete Media.

VXA (1999-late 2000s)

First introduced in 1999 by Ecrix, VXA is an 8mm backup tape format.

Three generations were released in all, beginning with VXA-1 and an uncompressed capacity of 33GB, and ending with VXA-3 released in 2005 with an uncompressed capacity of 160GB.

VXA uses packet technology to improve reliability and the likelihood of recovering data, even from damaged tapes.

The format was not developed further after Tandberg Data purchased Exabyte in 2006.