28 Apr
2013
28 Apr
'13
11:22 a.m.
All;
I'm curious as to what other manufacturers/systems supported the use of
block-oriented magnetic tape media along the lines of the DECtape (TU56)
and DECassette (TU60) drives.
One example that springs to my mind (although somewhat later -- mid
1980s) are the HP9142, 9144 and 9145 drives. These took QIC cartridges,
the HP9142 using stnadard DC600 tapes, the toer 2 using special
pre-formatted tapes (which I am told were actualyl sort-of stnadard at
the time)
These drives have internal controllers with an HPIB host interface and
accept the SS/80 or CS/80 command set IIRC. The first 2 units contain a
6809 processor and a couple of ASICs for data handling. The last one has
a 68000 (!) iside.
-tony