Odd QIC-like tape

The vearious QIC standards define certain aspects of QIC (Quarter Inch Cartridge) tapes. Some of them, like QIC11 and QIC24 define the way data is to be recorded on the tape, the track positions, and so on. Others, like QIC02 and QIC36 describre the interfaces on the tape drives themselves.There are basically 2 classes of interface, the 'raw' interface (for example QIC36), where you essentially have the bitstream to/from the hard on the interface connector (a bit like a floppy drive interface in conceopt) and 'formatted' interfaces, like QIC02 where you send 8-bit bytes to the drive, it buffers them, and writes blocks to the tape (a bit like SCSI in concept). I would guess thati's QIC36, but it could be QIC02. If there's a lot of logic on the ISA card, including RAM, it's likely to be a raw interface. If the ISA card is little more than an address decoder and latches/buffers, then it's a foramtteed interface, and there'll be more logic in the drive iteslf. There were formatter boards that, for example, connected to a 'raw' drive on one side (say QIC 36) and provided a fromatted host interface on the other (like QIC02). The Archive Sidewinder on my PERQ is like that -- the thing is the size of an 8" floppy drive, the drive itself mounts at the front of the frame and has a QIC36 interface. It links to a pair of stached PCBs bolted ot the frame behind the drive, there's a QIC02 host interface on the back. -tony