Today Maxell announced the availability of 160GB DAT DDS media. The new media has 160GB of compressed storage capacity and a transfer rate of 49.3GB/hour. To achieve the new capacity Maxell made the tape wider and change the cartridge design.

To comply with storage rules for federal regulations like HIPAA the new media is write once, read many so you can store critical data. A new tape cleaning cartridge is also available to go along with the new media.
DAT 160 is backwards compatible with DAT 72 and DDS-4 allowing for easy upgrades to the new technology. "The development of DAT 160 and Maxell's immediate product launch into the market is a prime example of our focused commitment and leadership role within the storage media industry," said Steven Pofcher, Senior Marketing Manager at Maxell. "We are providing the highest quality data storage media and services that our customers can trust when backing up their business-critical information." Story and image via Maxell press release.