transtec selects Sony's S-AIT and broadens the AIT offer for its server lines

Sony Europe's Storage Solutions division and transtec AG, one of the top 10 European Standard Intel Architecture Server (SIAS) manufacturers headquartered in Tbingen, Germany, today announced that transtec will broaden its range of Sony's AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) drives by offering the latest ATAPI models. With this move buyers of entry-level servers will have access to powerful backup solutions that leverage AIT capacities. All three of the current AIT generations, in addition to the new enterprise storage class S-AIT tape drives, will also be available as external transtec subsystems.

"With AIT, customers of our successful 2600 series tower servers can choose from the widest range of backup capacities and speeds available from a single, scalable tape storage platform today. Our powerful servers, coupled with fast and reliable AIT backup technology with its clear future roadmap, offer customers the best possible investment protection," explained Roman Klamke, Vice President Product Management and Product Marketing at transtec. "Additionally, as a Sony OEM customer we can already offer S-AIT, the new enterprise storage format, in the external transtec series 7400 drive sub systems, which have so far only been available with AIT-1, 2 and 3. This demonstrates how a close technology partnership can lead to delivery of actual products very quickly."

AIT solutions are rapidly becoming the preferred choice in a wide variety of data-critical storage management applications for leading companies around the world. AIT is currently being used in a wide range of applications, including real-time multimedia data acquisition, mid-range storage management, unattended backup and disaster recovery, transportable storage and data warehousing. Many server manufacturers wanting to offer customers an affordable and reliable tape storage solution have made AIT their de-facto standard.

Mark Lufkin, General Manager of Sales & Marketing for IT Peripherals within Sony Europe's Storage Solutions division, commented, "We are delighted that transtec has chosen AIT as the ideal backup technology for its powerful server range. Its endorsement is very significant for us and the momentum of AIT as the number one DDS replacement continues to develop in light of such recognition."

Information on AIT and S-AIT

AIT and S-AIT technology reflects Sony's 50 years of innovation and technical excellence in meeting customers' needs through magnetic recording solutions.

AIT drives and media are characterised by 8mm media, a compact 3.5-inch drive form-factor, helical-scan recording, Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) media and a unique

Remote-Memory-In-Cassette (R-MIC) chip. AIT drives are currently available in 3 generations, with uncompressed storage capacities of 35GB (AIT-1), 50GB

(AIT-2) and 100GB (AIT-3). With ALDC data compression storage capacity can be increased by up to 2.6 times, depending on the type of data, so that AIT-3 offers up to 260GB on a single cartridge.

S-AIT (Super Advanced Intelligent Tape), a format developed specifically for the enterprise market, is based on the same, innovative core technologies as AIT. The 5.25-inch form factor drives use a half-inch, single-reel tape cartridge to offer more than double the capacity of comparable linear tape drives, thanks to helical-scan recording. The first S-AIT generation,

(SAIT-1) has an uncompressed capacity of 500GB (up to 1.3 terabyte (TB) with data compression).

Currently the roadmap extends to six AIT and four S-AIT generations, with the aim of doubling capacity and performance from generation to generation.