On Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:59:05 -0700
Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote:
Is there any
way to connect the TC-130 to my Cipher 880?
Only if it has a separate formatter
board.
IIRC the Cipher 880 has a single large PCB that integrates everything.
The three connector interface is unformatted.
Ahh, OK. That is the difference: formatted vs. unformatted.
control cable, and 7 or 9 bits of
data to the read amps and write circuitry.
So this is something like the difference
from a MFM/RLL disk to an ESDI
disk. A unformatted interface carries the raw signals from / to the
heads. A formatted interface carries already decoded bits / the bits
are encoded by the formater in the drive.
You also need to match the transport speed with an
unformatted
interface.
There are jumpers / DIP switches in the TC-130 to set the speed.
OK. So, effectively I have to get a different UniBus to formated Pertec
tape controller. Modifying the Cipher 880 is no option. I want to use
it on my VAXen and the PDP-11/73. I have only formated Pertec interfaces
for those machines.
And I need a RL11 to connect my RL02 drive to the /34...
--
\end{Jochen}
\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}