HP and Sony Corp. are working on the future of DAT drives as they announcing an agreement to create the next-generation Digital Audio Tape format, the DAT 320, with improved performance and capacity compared to what we know today.

Although the two will be developing the DAT or DDS (Digital Data Storage) standard together, they announced they will be selling the DAT 320 tape drives and cartridges separately. They also revealed that they will keep the DAT 320 an open standard, giving partners the possibility to obtain license rights.

The new DAT 320 format is expected to come out in the first half on 2009, and should be able to store 320GB of data on one cartridge. The two companies have started working on it two years ago, as the demand for higher-capacity data backup and archiving continued to grow.

Both small and midsize businesses use tape to archive and back up data as a key component of their disaster recovery strategy, which explains the necessity of delivering “unmatched performance and capacity” for data protection solutions, as Bob Wilson, vice president and general manager Storage Platforms Division ,HP, said.

“Combining HP's technical base, which includes six DAT generations, and Sony's 50-year history in magnetic recording technology, including Metal Evaporated based media, will provide a compelling solution to meet the demands of higher-capacity and easy-to-manage data protection,” said Masayoshi Sugiyama, president, Chemical Device and Energy Business Group and executive vice president Sony Corporation.

The DAT 320 promises backup speeds of up to 86GB per hour with 2:1 data compression, as well as double the capacity on a single cartridge offered by the DAT 160 format, which is of 160GB. In addition to that, it will also consume fewer watts per GB than previous generations and will the backwards compatible with DAT 160.

Sony and HP have chosen to sell the DAT 320 tape drives separately, and give them unique features. The prices are expected to be similar with that of DAT 160, around $850, while a cartridge will be around $36, but these prices aren’t final.