About the Advanced Format Technology Committee (formerly LDS Committee)

Originally launched as the Long Data Sector (LDS) Committee, IDEMA's Advanced Format technology group is a consortium of leading storage hardware and software companies dedicated to driving technology standards and solutions that support the advancement of data storage. Advanced Format is a milestone technology that enhances storage efficiencies by modifying the data sector length from historical 512 to 520 byte increments to longer sector sizes. The first generation of Advanced Format specifies the sector length of 4,096 bytes and enables increased storage capacities while maintaining the integrity of the data stored on and process by hard disk drives. The technology was the result of ten years of collaborative work sponsored by IDEMA and more than 15 companies. Future implementations of Advanced Format technologies are being evaluated to ensure higher storage capacities for generations to come.