History (1989): Stupid Fight Between DDS and Data-DAT Standards

The stupid fight between DAT standards could turn out to be favorable to the DDS.

The fight between Gigatape, Hitachi/Sharp’s Data-DAT format and Sony/Hewlett-Packard’s DDS looks pitiful to actual and possible DAT users.

The larger amount of DDS supporters, a format that is however not as sophisticated as the Data-DAT one, has made plenty adepts at Comdex: Everex, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsumi, Mountain Computer, Procom, Sony, Tecmar, TLC, Wang DAT, and Wangtek.

The first prototypes of half-height 5.25-inch drives have also appeared in Las Vegas, NV from Archive, Everex, Hitachi, JVC, Procom, Sharp or Wang DAT for example.

The only ones capable of delivering DATs are Wangtek, Wang DAT and Sony in the DDS format, Gigatape and Sharp in the proprietary one.

According to Bo Larsson (Sony), the evolution in the next future should be 3.5-inch form factor with a 10GB capacity.

For the first time, a company named Identica, is offering a Data-DAT unit with a smaller capacity 600MB than the usual 1, 2 and 3GB ones, but with a cheaper drive, $3,995 end user price.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠22, published on November 1989.