History (1999): DAT DDS-4 at Starting Block

Sony was the first company to unveil a 4mm DDS-4 DAT drive, the SDT-1000, with a 150 meter cartridge for 20GB in native mode.

The Ultra Wide SCSI unit will integrate a drum that spins at 8,503rpm. Data transfer rate is 2.4MB/s native.

An internal version will list for roughly $1,500, the cartridge for $40.

In a private suite at CeBIT, Hewlett-Packard demonstrated its own forthcoming DDS-4 4mm DAT drive, which will not be officially announced before next September. As with HP’s current devices, it will be based on Mitsumi mechanics. The Surestore DAT 40, as it will be known (20GBs, 1.5 to 2MB/s) will be available in internal, external and 6 cartridge autoloader versions.

At their booth, an HP representative acknowledged that Sony had a slight lead, but that, in any case, the media were not yet available.

HP is also expected to launch a new low-cost DDS-1, the DAT 5000: 2GB native and 2x the transfer rate.

Seagate Technology’s model is called Scorpion 40, scheduled to hit the channel in July.

The future DDS-5 should offer 2x the capacity and transfer rate of DDS-4.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 135 on April 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.