DAT Recording
Prior to computer hard drives, digital information was saved to DAT or Digital Audio Tape. This was performed by first generation DAC (Digital to Audio Converter) and the tape passing over magnetic rotary read / write heads. ADAT, developed by the Alesis Corp., allowed 8-track DAT recording to S-VHS tapes (used in videocassettes). Tascam develeoped its standard to Hi8 videocassettes.
DAT will support sample rates of 48 KHz, 44.1 KHz and 32 KHz (the lower rate increases available recording time but at a lower quality level) at 16-bit Resolution. It is still very much an active format and is used extensively in a professional environment and application. These devices tend to have both analog and digital I/Os for converting analog sources of sound directly and exporting digital data to other devices.