14 Jul
2004
14 Jul
'04
12:48 a.m.
On Tue, 2004-07-13 at 21:47, Al Kossow wrote:
Emulex MW0210402's
--
Should be MT02
A google for Emulex MW0210402 turns up:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/Sun4/RMVBL_Emulex_MT02.html
...which *suggests* that it's an MT02 board, just with a potentially
different ROM and (better?) support for both Archive and Wangtek drives.
I'm assuming from that page that they're interchangable as far as
driving an Archive tape drive. Certainly the board layout looks the
same. I'll give it a try...
MT02's are SCSI common command set and
can read QIC-11 or QIC-24 formats.
If the carts are DC300,450, or 600 and they were written on a
80's - ish unix box, they will probably be readable with a 5945
and MT02.
Good to hear. I've just found a original Olivetti floppy amongst the
pile containing tape drivers for a 3B2 machine, so there's a reasonable
chance that's what the tapes were written on. (all these floppies,
tapes, and general other detritus were ust tipped into three drawers in
a storage room, so there's no guarantees.
I actually remember someone from the same site offering a 3B2 last year,
so that could well have been the very same system which wrote these
tapes.
Wish I'd grabbed it now as there's a pretty good chance all of these
floppies (and I'm hoping the tapes too) were once internal to the
offices of Topologika (and so quite a nice find for an Acorn collector).
Be ABSOLUTELY sure that the capstan hasn't
deteriorated before
trying to do anything with a tape you care about, though. Most
drives that old have rubber that has turned to goo, or WILL turn
to goo once heat is applied though the motor shaft.
It feels good - it doesn't seem to have dried but on the other hand I
can't leave a mark on it with my fingernail so unless it changes
drastically when warm it sohuld be ok. I'll test with a blank tape
first, of course :) (somewhere I actually have a cleaning kit for these
drives too)
Docs for both the Archive drive and MT02 are up on
bitsavers.
Thanks! :)
cheers,
Jules