On Tue, 21 Jun 2005, Chris Loken wrote:

BUT - my AIT-4 drive apparently can't even read AIT-3 tapes. Seems mind-bogglingly stupid but my vendor assures me it's true (haven't dared to try).

Anybody understand if this is an issue that's going to be resolved and, if so, will it be in firmware or hardware?

Answer looks pretty clear from the charts here:

http://b2b.sony.com/documents/category/storage/branded-tape/AIT_Drives/AIT-4/AITMedia_05.pdf

I suppose it was necessary in order to progress, but bailing on backwards
compatibility is very annoying to the customer.  It's also not especially
good for business.  If I've been buying all the AIT line drives, at least
in part because the newer ones will read tapes I wrote with the older
ones, then I have a business reason to engage in brand loyalty.  Once
that reason is gone then the next time I upgrade drives, all media
choices are back on the table again and I may choose something other than
AIT the next time.  Didn't the same thing happen with DLT between DLT8000
and SDLT?

-Mitch