>I picked up > several of the 7970E tape drives. They all say 45 IPS inside and all but > one are marked "option 052/151", the other one is marked "option 183".

> was one of a pair that was mounted in one cabinent and run off of a

> set of controller cards with some jumper cables connecting the two

option 151 specifies 45ips, master PE read circuits, 9 track, PE write circuits (1600bpi) From what I've seen, -151 is the most common to find 'in the wild' these days I would suspect that 052 is an elective option, not a standard

option. I can't find any docs on option 052. Option 183 I also can't find any docs on, but I would guess it is

related to being a slave drive. HP 7970 tape drives could be read/write, read only, dual format, or

format. They could also be slave only units (where you have to have a

to use it) or master. I personally think the nicest setup for a single tape drive is the -157/161/165 which are 3 varying speeds of a master that can deal with

or 9 track, PE or NRZI. However, these can't write PE mode, only NRZI.

you read the most types of media though. Then the best setup for two

is either two 151's on two separate controllers, or a 151 and 150 master/slave setup. I find the manual on these options especially confusing. Jay West