DAT 72 is the name chosen by HP and Certance for the fifth generation of DDS, which has brought back to life the long-dead technology. It follows on from DDS-4, which shipped in 1998 as the last iteration of the DDS technology that was originally developed by HP and Sony in 1989.
The two companies clearly would have preferred to use the moniker DDS-5, but were prevented from doing so by Sony Corp, which owns rights to the DDS name. Sony did not share HP and Certance’s enthusiasm for a DSS revival, because it is pitching its own AIT tape technology at the same low-end customers.
DAT 72 delivers 36GB per cartridge native or 72GB compressed capacity, 80% more than DDS-4, with a data transfer speed up 25% at 25.2GB per hour. The Certance and HP drives can read and write to DDS-3 and DDS-4 cartridges. Maxell said the increased capacity of DAT 72 was achieved with narrower data tracks, and thinner and longer tape inside each cartridge.
According to storage researcher Freemans Reports, DDS accounted for around 58% of low-end tape shipments in 2002, and 7m drives have been installed worldwide.
Source: Computerwire
