Term of the Moment
Hydra Market
Definition: DTF
(Digital Tape Format) A high-performance magnetic tape technology from Sony that was based on the helical scan transport and cartridge shell of Sony's highly successful 1/2" Digital Betacam. Providing up to 42GB of storage (DTF-1) with a sustained transfer rate of 12 Mbytes/sec, DTF drives were widely used for general enterprise-wide backup and storage area networks (SANs) as well as archiving video and recording seismic information. In 1999, the DTF-2 format increased capacity to 200GB and transfer rate to 24MB/s. Supplanted by LTO and SAIT, DTF was given end of life status in 2004 with support until 2011. See DIR, LTO, AIT and magnetic tape.
DTF Tape Storage
Sony's DTF tape drives evolved from its successful Betacam family which has been an industry standard for years. The 4mm DAT cassette is shown for size comparison.