The DAT160 tape format was launched recently in June 2007 by HP. As compared to previous generations, DAT160 is slightly different in that it uses an 8mm tape instead of the 3.81mm tape used in all prior versions. However, the DAT160 drives are still backwards compatible with DAT72 (DDS-5) and DAT32 (DDS-4) tape cartridges. DAT160 has a native capacity of 80 GB and a compressed capacity as the name suggests (DAT160) of 160 GB. The transfer rate is generally accepted to be greater than 5 MB/s for all DAT160 tape drives, however depending on the drive, you may achieve a transfer rate of up to 6.9 MB/s (native). The future looks bright for the DAT format as DAT320 and onwards are already in development and are scheduled to be released in about 2 years time. There are the following types of versions and products available for DDS tapes: DDS-1, DDS-2, DDS-3, DDS-4 or DAT40, DDS-5 or DAT72, DAT160, DDS Cleaning Cartridge and Barcode Labels.
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