24 Nov
2012
24 Nov
'12
1:06 a.m.
I wrote:
It is remotely possible that there's an
undocumented "format" command
in the protocol. However, I've heard multiple people claim that
special firmware was required.
I spent some time reverse-engineering the firmware. There is only one
undocumented opcode, decimal 10, and I haven't yet figured out what it
does, but it definitely doesn't format a tape.
I think I understand the code that writes a block, but of course there's
no code to write an address field. Writing formatter firmware shouldn't
be too hard, but it would be best to have a known good tape to examine
to find out the details of the gap lengths.
Eric