The need for long data sectors was first identified in 1998 when a technical paper issued by the National Storage Industry Consortium (NSIC)[REF] called attention to the conflict between continuing increases in areal density and the traditional 512-byte-per-sector format used in hard disk drives [REF].
Advanced Format was coined to cover what was expected to become several generations of long-data-sector technologies, and its logo was created to distinguish long-data-sector-based hard disk drives from those using legacy 512-, 520- or 528-byte sectors [REF].