?Erasure head? has been not included into the Sony WORM AIT3 drive. Therefore any type of intentional or either un-intentional attempt to over-write or change the data stored on the AIT tape media is completely prevented. Data alteration is not possible in any case even when the data tape is pulled from WORM AIT3 tape cartridge and then kept into AIT tape cartridge (non WORM). This process comprises of a verification procedure in which the information held in R-MIC is compared with the information in the data tape's system area. The hole in AIT3 cartridge that enables the recording has been removed. The main idea is to protect the tape cartridge from any accidental data over-writing in case of interruption in recording.



EOD marker has been disabled in the AIT WORM drive to make it ?read only? which further protects the over-writing of data. RMIC (remote MIC) is included in each of the Sony AIT-3 SDX3-100C cartridge. R-MIC connects immediately and directly to the on board processors of the tape drive. This makes the media load process faster. The consumers can quickly access the user files. The remote MIC has 64 KB memory that acts as the tape AIT tape medium's intelligence.

R-MIC holds embedded information and necessary code that does not allow the data to be overwritten. The other stored information includes the physical traits of remote MIC, information about the manufacturer, application ID, serial number and the physical traits of the data tape media. Front of the tape has a non-data area that holds the key information about the AIT tape cartridge. This is called the system area that contains an index about the information of tape media. A duplicate of this index is generated on the RMIC that is related to the stored records on AIT-3 SDX3X150C cartridge. This information controls and avoids the overwriting of information on the AIT tape. The AIT WORM drive first reads the application-ID on the remote MIC when the cartridge is inserted into it. The application ID tells helps the drive to distinguish between AIT non-WORM and AIT WORM tape media. The virgin-space can only be formatted.

To avoid rewriting, the EOD is searched by the AIT drive before the start of recording session. After the detection of EOD it is disabled to allow the recording of information in the space. New EOD is generated after the completion of the data recording session. Complete recording session will enable the generation of an EOD. EOD will not be created if there is error during the recording mechanism that interrupts the precise and complete recording of information. Application-ID is saved on the system area as well as the RMIC of the AIT tape when it is formatted. Comparison is made between the RMIC information and system area's information before the start of recording process. The recording process is not carried out in case of any conflict or disagreement between these two informations. AIT-3 tape technology has double protection mechanism that does not allow the overwriting. That is why the hole that enables recording is eliminated from the Sony AIT3 SDX3X150C tape. Application ID helps the AIT tape drive in identification of the tape cartridge.

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