A good friend has a well preserved IBM 3430 tape drive, originally
connected to an IMPI AS/400, and we are now hopeful that it could be
reconnected to a slightly more modern AS/400, still IMPI and still
SPD. This would give us a local 9-track tape capability:
here are some pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/118247290269860741639/IBM3430TapeDrive#5606377…
What we are particularly interested to learn is whether we have the
"master" tape drive, known as a A01 unit (that includes the controller
electronics) or the tape-drive-only unit known as the B01 variant.
We added a picture today (see very last picture) of the main
controller electronics cage that shows several plug-in cards, is
anyone familiar with these and can identify the variant by sight? we
searched the entire machine looking for some designation that showed
the model variant without success. So we assume it comes down to the
controller cage, and we see empty slots so we wonder if it is the B01
variant.