28 Jun
2001
28 Jun
'01
3:55 a.m.
At 11:39 PM 6/26/01 +0100, you wrote:
Both the read and fast forward (and rewind) tape speeds are a lot
lower on the 9815 than it is on the 9825 and other HPs. So the 9877 may
not be able to read 9815 tapes, but OTOH it may be able read and write them
even though it can't "process" them. In any event, I'm told that there
was
a cable that could be used to connect two 9815s so that you could read a
tape on one and duplicate it on the other. Sort of a null-modem. I expect
that was what was used to duplicate tapes for the 9815. I'm also
reasonable certain that the 9815 predates the 9877 so HP would have had
have used something other than the 9877 to create 9815 tapes.
Joe
At 09:26 PM 6/26/01 +0100, you wrote:
Right. I couldn't remember which of the many HP collectors here is
looking for info on this unit.
I rmemeber that somebody here was looking for info
on the HP9877
'External Tape Memory'
I was one of them. Yes, that's what it was used for within
HP. One HP engineer that I
talked to said that it was used at HP to produce all of the tapes that HP
sold. He thought it was used for tapes for machines other than just the
9825 but he wasn't positive. I think that's likely since no other tape
duplication device was made at HP AFIK.
It would certainly copy tapes for the 9831, which has the same tape
controller as the 9825. I suspect the 9835 amd 9845 are similar, but I
don't have those machines so I can't check. I don't know if 9815 tapes
can be copied on this unit -- the 9815 has the same tape mechanism (and
the little PCB attached to that is the same), but the tape controller is
very different (it's even more software-intensive on the 9815, it uses
the 6800 processor for just about everything).