History 2004: Sony AIT-4 Takes on LTO-2

Sony used CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, as the opportunity to launch its new AIT helical scan model, the AIT-4, with uncompressed capacity of 200GB – which means nearly half a terabyte with data compression – and native 24MB/s transfer rate, all of which puts the company in a much better position to compete with LTO-2 (200/30-35) and SDLT 600 (300/36).

Theoretically, the next announcement in this category of drives should be for LTO-3 (400/80) later this year.

The new AIT-4 drive, to be available to OEMs in June, in volume around October, can read and write AIT-3 at 18MB/s (rather than 12) and read only AIT-1 and -2 cartridges.

According to Mark Lufkin, sales and marketing of Sony Europe for IT peripherals, the price, while not final, should come in at 5 to 10% lower than that of an LTO-2 drive.

AIT-4 follows the manufacturer’s roadmap, which called for double the capacity and transfer rates of AIT-3.

To achieve this doubling, areal density was improved from 720 to 1,170Mb per square inch, while tape length was increased by 7%, with optimization of data structure.

To improve the transfer rate, the drum rotation was accelerated, accompanied by the integration of advanced MIG heads and AME media.

“This technology will be at the base of the forthcoming SAIT-2, with 1TB native,” explained Mike Law, business development manager for OEM IR Peripherals at Sony Europe.

WORM cartridges will also be offered.

Two library manufacturers, Breece Hill and Spectra Logic, have already publicly indicated that they will integrate AIT-4 into their robotics as soon as possible.

The next step in AIT technology, launched by Sony in 1986, will be AIT-5 (400/48), before the final step, AIT-6 (800/96).

“In 2003, we counted some 500,000 AIT drives and 10 million cartridges in service,” said Lufkin.

That’s both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s clear that Sony hoped to do better, with the firm intention to upset DDS technology, until the latter was rejuvenated by the arrival of DAT72, still holding the larger share of today’s tape drive market, even if that share is diminishing. A drop in the prices of 8mm AIT-2 devices will no doubt put it in a better position vis-a-vis 4mm helical scan media. What’s more, AIT hasn’t entirely won over all the major OEMs, apart from HP, particularly given it’s mono-source nature, whether for the drive or the media.

On the other hand, IDC estimates that AIT-3 grew in 2003 to a nearly 10% share of the EMEA midrange tape drive market, which also includes LTO, DLT and Mammoth devices.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 195 on April 2004 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.