Rexon Inc, Simi Valley, California has signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint design and manufacturing partnership on its Digital Audio Tape line of tape products with Sony Corp with the aim of producing the most advanced DAT drives operating at higher capacities and transfer rates than current products: the agreement calls for the joint design of new DAT drives, incorporating the second generation DDS-II DAT recording format, with the first, due early next year, to offer native capacity of 4Gb without data compression and operate at a higher data transfer rate than any DAT product available today; Rexon’s WangDAT will be responsible for the architecture, design and implementation of the electronics including all firmware and software and Sony will design and make the tape mechanism; Rexon will own the electronics, firmware and software will be owned by Rexon and the resulting products will be sold exclusively by Rexon worldwide.
