ADIC AIT 100D, Installation And Operating Manual, Page: 12 / 50

2
Introduction
Equipment Description
The ADIC 70
D
and 100
D
are SCSI-2 compatible and economical data storage devices. The 70D and 100D
both feature high-speed file access, high reliability, easy maintenance, and are designed for storage of near-
line and off-line data. The 70
D
and 100
D
both feature a 2-line by 16-character LCD that is used to display
drive status, operational messages, and error messages.
The AIT-70
D,
equipped with the 3.5” form factor Sony AIT-1 drive (SDX-300C), provides up to 70 GB of
removable, highly reliable data storage on a low cost, pocket-sized, 170-meter data cassette (SDX1-35C,
assuming 2:1 data compression). The Fast Wide SCSI drive provides a sustained data transfer rate of over
360 MB per minute (assuming 2:1 data compression). The AIT-100
D
, equipped with the 3.5” form factor
AIT-2 drive (SDX-500C) provides up to 100 GB of removable, highly reliable data storage on a low cost,
pocket-sized, 230-meter data cassette (SDX2-50C, assuming 2:1data compression). The Wide Ultra SCSI
drive provides a sustained data transfer rate of over 360 MB per minute (assuming 2:1 data compression).
The AIT-1 and AIT-2 drives do not require periodic head cleaning as often as conventional tape drives. Both
of the drives constantly monitor head output to check for possible contamination. If present, the drives will
invoke a built-in Active Head Cleaner. Under extreme environmental conditions, a cleaning cassette may be
required and the drives will indicate this by displaying a Cleaning Request message on the front panel Status
LED.
The removable data cassettes (SDX1-25C, SDX1-35C, SDX2-36C, and SDX2-50C) support the Advanced
Intelligent Tape (AIT™) format. The cassettes use a new recording format, Adaptive Lossless Data
Compression (ALDC™), Memory In Cassette (MIC™) technology capabilities, and the exclusive use of
Sony’s Advanced-Metal Evaporated (AME™) media. The AME media incorporates dual cobalt magnetic
layers, the absence of binder material to prevent tape head contamination and a super-durable “diamond-like
™) protective coating for extreme durability.
The AIT-70
D
and AIT-100
D
are compatible with all operating systems and environments supporting the Fast
Wide SCSI or Wide Ultra SCSI interface, but requires either direct support of the operating system or a
suitable application program to take advantage of their features. Hosting environments that do not directly
support SCSI interfaces, like most personal computers, require the addition of a SCSI Host Adapter card. The
fast search capabilities of the Sony SDX-300C or SDX-500C drives, in conjunction with supporting
application software allows users to quickly locate and retrieve any stored file, with an average file access
time of less than 130 seconds.
Note
Exabyte ® (and other manufacturers) 8mm data cassettes are
not compatible with the AIT drive. Do not Do not attempt to use 8mm
cassettes in the 70
D
or 100
D
.
The AIT-70
D
/100
D
drives can be connected to existing SCSI channels using a common transport protocol
like ASPI, or they can be connected to a dedicated SCSI channel. A maximum of 16 SCSI devices can be
interconnected on a single Fast Wide SCSI channel, or a Wide Ultra SCSI channel running in either High
Voltage Differential (HVD) or Low Voltage Differential (LVD) mode, not including the hosting
environment. A maximum of 8 SCSI devices can be interconnected on a single Wide Ultra SCSI channel
running in Single-ended/LVD mode (SE/LVD) providing the SCSI bus length is no longer than 1.5 meters. A
maximum of 4 SCSI devices can be interconnected on a single Wide Ultra SCSI channel running in SE/LVD