Hitachi Maxell will begin offering branded DLTtape S4 media product in June 2006. Maxell jointly developed the media with Quantum to support the data recording requirements of Quantum's DLT-S4 tape drives.

The Maxell DLTtape S4 delivers twice the capacity of the nearest alternative offering and optimizes the performance of the Quantum DLT-S4 tape drive with a native capacity of 800GB (1.6TB with compression) and a native transfer rate of 60MB/s (120MB/s with compression). Maxell's DLTtape S4 leverages Quantum's DLTSage WORM (write-once, read-many) for meeting legal & regulatory compliance, and DLTSage Tape Security features for preventing unauthorized access to data.. The DLT-S4 will be available from resellers and distributors throughout North and South America.

Maxell?s DLTtape S4 media is based on the company's technology platform known as Neo Super Maximum capacity Advanced Reliability Tape (NeoSMART).

NeoSMART is a convergence of tape and manufacturing technologies that support higher reliability recording and data recovery at the extreme track and bit densities demanded by DLT-S4 technology drives and beyond. The improved magnetic particles, new coating and dispersion technologies of the NeoSMART platform are designed to support future tape cartridge capacities of one Terabyte and beyond. A key component of NeoSMART is Maxell's Nano Composite Advanced Particles (NanoCAP) technology that combines an innovative particle structure with high magnetic performance. This technology will drive future development of tape drives and media products with native capacities of 10 Terabytes, according to Hitachi Maxell.