Sony added that the new WORM drives will be multifunctional, fully supporting both AIT-2 and AIT-3 rewritable cartridges, as well as AIT-2 and AIT-3 WORM media. Once recorded, AIT WORM media cannot be re-written or re-formatted, but data can be appended to the end of previously recorded information.

"By building WORM functionality into all future AIT-2 and AIT-3 drives and media, we're helping our customers address the additional data protection requirements imposed by governmental agencies and certain commercial applications," said John Woelbern, director of OEM tape storage solutions marketing for Sony's Business Systems and Solutions Company.

"AIT WORM drives offer advanced data security in a compact 3.5-inch form-factor and at a price per gigabyte that is lower than most other alternatives. They're desirable products for those storing financial, securities, government, medical and insurance data, and provide true value differentiation from other tape formats in the market," Mr. Woelbern added.

The WORM solution, said Sony, also uses Sony's Remote Memory-in-Cassette (R-MIC) drive interface system, and a special AIT Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) media cartridge, to ensure positive media recognition.

Sony said its AIT-2 technology delivers up to a 50GB native (130GB compressed) capacity and 6MB per second native (15MB/s compressed) sustained data transfer rates. AIT-3 technology features 100GB native (260GB compressed) capacity per cassette and a 12MB/s native (31MB/s compressed) transfer rate.

In addition to providing WORM features, all AIT-2 and AIT-3 drives will continue to provide backward compatibility for both WORM and traditional, rewritable media, the company said.

Additional information about Sony storage products is available at http://www.sony.com/news or http://www.storagebysony.com.