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Wikipedia / Data8

The 8mm backup format is a discontinued magnetic tape data storage format used in computer systems, pioneered by Exabyte Corporation. It is also known as Data8, often abbreviated to D8 and is written as D-Eight on some Sony branded media. Such systems can back up up to 60 GB of data depending on configuration. The cassettes have the same dimensions and construction as the cassettes used in 8 mm video format recorders and camcorders.

Until the advent of AIT, Exabyte was the sole vendor of 8mm format tape drives. The company was formed with the aim of taking the 8mm video format and making it suitable for data storage. They did so by building a reliable mechanism and data format that used the common 8mm helical scan videotape technology that was available then.

Exabyte's first 8mm tape drive was made available in 1987. This was followed up with their Mammoth tape drive in 1996, and the Mammoth-2 (M2) in 1999.

Exabyte's drive mechanisms were frequently rebranded and integrated into UNIX systems.

Metal Particle (MP) Data8 cartridges are essentially identical to Video8 cassettes and can be used for video recording. Similarly, Video8 cassettes will work in Data8 drives capable of using MP tape.

Generations

NOTE: The AIT and VXA formats and some other less common formats also use 8mm wide tape, but are completely incompatible.

Compatibility between tapes and drives and native capacities (GB)

Legend:

  • RO - The tape drive can read this tape, but not write. (Read Only)

  • Y - The tape drive can read and write this tape, but its size is not known.

  • Numbered entries indicate the native storage capacity (in GB) for this combination of tape and drive.

Exabyte 8 mm

These drives use metal particle (MP) tape.

1987—EXB-8200

  • Full-height form factor

  • 246kB/s data transfer rate

  • EXB-8200SX model features high-speed search

  • EXB-8205: Up to 5.0GB on one 112m data cartridge (assuming 2:1 compression ratio)

  • EXB-8205XL: Up to 7.0GB on one 160m data cartridge (assuming 2:1 compression ratio)

1990—EXB-8500

  • Full-height form factor

  • 500kB/s data transfer rate

  • EXB-8500c model features hardware data compression

1992—EXB-8505

  • Half-height form factor

  • 500kB/s data transfer rate (uncompressed) / 1.0MB/s data transfer rate (assuming a 2:1 compression ratio)

  • Up to 10.0GB on one 112m data cartridge (assuming 2:1 compression ratio)

1994—EXB-8505XL

  • Half-height form factor

  • 500kB/s data transfer rate (uncompressed) / 1.0MB/s data transfer rate (assuming a 2:1 compression ratio)

  • Up to 14.0GB on one 160m XL data cartridge (assuming 2:1 compression ratio)

1995—EXB-8700

  • Tabletop (top-loading) form factor

  • 8700 model included generic backup software

  • 8700LT model included no software

  • 8700SW included Cheyenne backup software

1998—Eliant 820

  • Half-height form factor

Mammoth

These drives use Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape, but could also read (but not write) MP tapes.

1996—EXB-8900 Mammoth

  • 3MB/s data transfer rate

  • LCD on drive displayed drive status

1999—Mammoth-LT

  • No LCD

Mammoth-2 (M2)

These drives used Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) tape with a 2m integrated cleaning tape header called Smart Clean.

1999—Mammoth-2

  • 12MB/s data transfer rate

  • 4.6cm/s tape speed during normal read/write operations

  • 1.6m/s tape speed during search and rewind operations

  • 17s load time, from insertion to ready

  • ALDC hardware data compression, 1kB compression buffer

See also

Standards