AIT is a high performance technology due to its much shorter media and its "one-pass" recording nature. Some popular competing technologies will "shoe shine" tape over 50 times in order to completely fill the media. The AIT recording technology is also characterized by a very short "streaming recycle" time—enabled by its slow tape motion, which provides superior overall performance over a range of host data rates.

AIT's gentle tape motion, air bearing tape wrap and very low tension, together with the exceptional durability of Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) media, make it an ideal, high duty-cycle automation solution. The Annual Failure Rate (AFR) data for the AIT family over the past several years has demonstrated an equivalent Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF) of over 300,000 hours at 100% utilization.

For more information, please choose from the links below:

• AIT-3 vs. Others Chart
• AIT-2 vs. Others Chart
• AIT-1 vs. Others Chart

AIT-2 vs. Others

	AIT-2	SLR100	Mammoth2	VXA-2
Capacity and Performance
Max Native Capacity	50GB	50GB	60GB	80GB
Max Compressed Capacity	130GB	100GB	150GB	160GB
Max Native Transfer Rate	6MB/s	5MB/s	12MB/s	6MB/s
Max Compressed Transfer Rate	15MB/s	10MB/s	30MB/s	12MB/s
Average File Access Time	<27 sec	58-89 sec	52 sec	N/A
Average Media Load Time	<10 sec	<30 sec	17 sec	20-30 sec
Technology
Recording Format	Helical-Scan	Advanced Linear	Helical-Scan	Helical-Scan
Form Factor	3.5" HH	5.25" HH	5.25" HH	5.25" HH
Media Type	8mm - AME+	QIC - MP	8mm - AME	8mm - AME
Automatic Head Cleaner	Yes	No	Yes	No
Buffer Size	10MB	8MB	32MB	2MB
Auxiliary (Cartridge) Memory	Yes, 64 Kbit MIC	No	No	No
Power Consumption	12 watts	23.1 watts	16 watts	10 watts
SCSI Interface	Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide	Ultra2 Wide
Reliability*
MTBF (Hours)	300,000	300,000	300,000	300,000
Duty Cycle	100%	100%	100%	12%
Head Life (Hours)	50,000	10,000	50,000	N/A
Media Uses (end-to-end passes)	30,000	N/A	20,000	N/A
Media Archival Life	30 years	>20 years	N/A	30 years

AIT-1 vs. Others

	AIT-1	DDS-4	VXA-1	DAT72	DLT1
Capacity and Performance
Max Native Capacity	35GB	20GB	33GB	36GB	40GB
Max Compressed Capacity	90GB	40GB	66GB	72GB	80GB
Max Native Transfer Rate	4MB/s	2.36MB/s	3MB/s	3MB/s	3MB/s
Max Compressed Transfer Rate	10MB/s	4.72MB/s	6MB/s	6MB/s	6MB/s
Average File Access Time	<27 sec	<55 sec	60-95 sec	50 sec	68 sec
Average Media Load Time	<10 sec	<24 sec	40 sec	N/A	59 sec
Technology
Recording Format	Helical-Scan	Helical-Scan	Helical-Scan	Helical-Scan	Linear
Form Factor	3.5" HH	3.5" HH	5.25" HH	5.25" HH	5.25" HH
Media Type	8mm - AME	4mm - MP	8mm - AME	4mm DAT	1/2" - MP
Automatic Head Cleaner	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Buffer Size	10MB	10MB	4 Mbits	16MB	2MB
Auxiliary (Cartridge) Memory	Yes, 64 Kbit MIC	No	No	No	No
Power Consumption	12 watts	8 watts	8.3 watts	7.1 watts	15 watts
Interface	IDE (ATAPI), Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide	Ultra Wide
Reliability*
MTBF (Hours)	300,000	250,000	300,000	400,000	>200,000
Duty Cycle	100%	40%	12%	12%	100%
Head Life (Hours)	50,000	20,000	30,000	N/A	>30,000
Media Uses (end-to-end passes)	30,000	2,000	20,000	N/A	<20,000
Media Archival Life	30 years	30 years	30 years	30 years	30 years

• All information shown above is based on published specifications.
• N/A: Information not available.
• *Reliability specifications are averages based on normal office environmental conditions. Actual experience may vary.