本国际标准规定了8mm宽盒式磁带的物理和磁性特性，以允许此类盒式磁带的互换性。它还规定了所记录信号的质量、格式和记录方法，从而允许通过此类盒式磁带与ISO 1001磁带标签进行全面的数据交换。本标准基于ISO/IEC 11319，信息交换用8mm宽盒式磁带——斩波记录〗DAL，但使用的是允许原始容量加倍的〗双方位记录。该格式允许可变长度的逻辑记录、高速搜索和使用记录数据压缩算法。

This International Standard specifies the physical and magnetic characteristics of an 8 mm wide magnetic tape cartridge to enable interchangeability of such cartridges. It also specifies the quality of the recorded signals, the format and the recording method, thus allowing, together with ISO 1001 for Magnetic Tape Labelling, full data interchange by means of such magnetic tape cartridges. It is based on ISO/IEC 11319, but uses Dual Azimuth Recording to allow the raw capacity to be doubled. The format supports variable length Logical Records, high speed search, and the use of a registered data compression algorithm.