Is this something I should be interested in? Does the GL-1 take advantage of this? Which cameras do? What is it's benifit exactly?

Bruce

The Canon cameras do not take benefit of this chip, so it is
worthless to get such a tape if you are using a Canon camera.
I believe it is used to store timecode information, not sure on
this though.

Any one else has something on this?

I know that the Sony PD-150 can take advantage of tapes with casette memory.
This feature allows the user to:
1) Locate the end of the last recorded scene on the tape (even if the tape has been removed from the camera) allowing for seamless transitions between recording a scene, playing it back & recording the next scene.
2) "Mark" spots on the tape, so that you can locate them later according to date, title, photo, index etc.
3) Superimpose titles (8 presets & 2 custom) while recording or after recording.
4) Label the cassette.
That's as much as I know about it. I haven't had any reason to use this function yet but I have a few tapes with the Memory chip just in case.
Hope this helps some.
Erik