4 Jun
2009
4 Jun
'09
12:52 a.m.
I have an older UNIX system with an internal Archive Viper 150mb SCSI QIC tape drive. In
the drive was a DC600A tape cartridge. What's the difference between DC600A cartridges
and the DC6150 cartridges I remember seeing years ago? I've tried reading this tape,
but it doesn't appear to contain readable data - but then again, it may not have ever
been intended for this drive.
-Ian
4 Jun
4 Jun
1:01 a.m.
On 3 Jun 2009 at 17:52, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
I have an older UNIX system with an internal Archive
Viper 150mb SCSI
QIC tape drive. In the drive was a DC600A tape cartridge. What's the
difference between DC600A cartridges and the DC6150 cartridges I
remember seeing years ago? I've tried reading this tape, but it
doesn't appear to contain readable data - but then again, it may not
have ever been intended for this drive.
The old name for the DC6150 was DC600XL - XL for "Extended Length".
I've used 600A, 6150/600XL and 6250 in my 150MB Tandberg and Caliper
QIC-02 drives without any problem.
--Chuck
1:48 a.m.
Mr Ian Primus wrote:
I have an older UNIX system with an internal Archive
Viper 150mb SCSI QIC tape drive. In the drive was a DC600A tape cartridge. What's the
difference between DC600A cartridges and the DC6150 cartridges I remember seeing years
ago? I've tried reading this tape, but it doesn't appear to contain readable data
- but then again, it may not have ever been intended for this drive.
-Ian
DC600A = 9 tracks 60MB (600 ft tape), 550 Oersted
DC6150 = 18 tracks, 150MB (600 ft tape), 550 Oersted
I'd guess you can do 150MB on a DC600A as long as it is bulk erased
first (I'd imagine the
individual tracks are narrower on a QIC-150 formatted tape vis a QIC-24
format (60M)
tape (much like 1.2M 5.25" floppy tracks are narrower than on the 360K
drive (which led to
all sorts of 'fun' writing 360K disks on a 1.2M drive!)))
-- Curt
2:22 a.m.
On 3 Jun 2009 at 21:48, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
DC600A = 9 tracks 60MB (600 ft tape), 550 Oersted
DC6150 = 18 tracks, 150MB (600 ft tape), 550 Oersted
I'd guess you can do 150MB on a DC600A as long as it is bulk erased
first (I'd imagine the individual tracks are narrower on a QIC-150
formatted tape vis a QIC-24 format (60M) tape (much like 1.2M 5.25"
floppy tracks are narrower than on the 360K drive (which led to all
sorts of 'fun' writing 360K disks on a 1.2M drive!)))
That's odd--all of my 6150s are 620 ft. 6250s are 550 Oersted, but
1020 ft.
What QIC-02 drives taking DC-600-sized carts require preformatted
tape?
I've got a Cipher 525 that takes DC600A carts, but it's a floppytape
interface and probably requires preformatting. I've also got an
Iomat requires a preformatted tape as the EOT and BOT markers are
encoded (instead of holes in the tape).
But all of my QIC02/QIC36/SCSI tape drives don't care what's on the
tape beforehand. 9 tracks, 11 tracks, 18 tracks--it's all the same.
On a related bit, I've gotten tapes in that were clearly written on
the same system, but 310 Oe (DC300XL) tapes mixed with with 550 Oe
(DC600A) tapes. Didn't seem to matter as far as readability 15 years
down the road.
--Chuck
6 p.m.
What QIC-02 drives taking DC-600-sized carts require
preformatted
tape?
Not with a QIC02 interface (in fact the host interface is HPIB), but HP
made a couple of drives (9144 and 9145 at least) that used takes with the
same form factoer as the DC600, but which had to be factory formatted.
-tony
6:26 p.m.
> What QIC-02 drives taking DC-600-sized carts
require preformatted
> tape?
none
The original QIC-11 and QIC-24 formats do a full width erase on the first
track written.
There are many QIC standards. 11 and 24 are the original on-tape format
specs, with differing numbers of tracks. QIC-36 is the unformatted drive
interface, QIC-02 was an intelligent interface that was quickly replaced
by SCSI. Most converters were for QIC-36 to SCSI. Very early Sun systems
used QIC-02 to SASI converters, but they switched to Emulex QIC-36 to
SCSI adapters before going to embedded SCSI controllers on the 150mb
archive drives.
Unfortunately, the QIC web site doesn't have many of the early standards,
you have to look at the specs for the drives or host adapters.
I have heard that HP 914x 16 and 32 track drives used 3M CAPAMAT format,
as did Apple's 40 meg tape drive, and require formatted tapes. I beleive
the HP tapes are wound backwards as well.
6:26 p.m.
On 4 Jun 2009 at 19:00, Tony Duell wrote:
Not with a QIC02 interface (in fact the host interface
is HPIB), but
HP made a couple of drives (9144 and 9145 at least) that used takes
with the same form factoer as the DC600, but which had to be factory
formatted.
Aren't those the Iomat-formatted tapes? (no holes in the tape, nor
angled mirror for sensing them.
--Chuck
7:03 p.m.
On 4 Jun 2009 at 19:00, Tony Duell wrote:
It's been a long time since I've been inside a 9144/5, but I seem to
remember there is no optical stuff for a hole sensor. I can't comment on
the name of the format.
The 9145 contains a 68000 CPU and some battery-backed RAM modules, and
alas some ASICs. One day I'll figure out something about it.
-tony
Not with a QIC02 interface (in fact the host
interface is HPIB), but
HP made a couple of drives (9144 and 9145 at least) that used takes
with the same form factoer as the DC600, but which had to be factory
formatted.
Aren't those the Iomat-formatted tapes? (no holes in the tape, nor
angled mirror for sensing them.
9 p.m.
On 4 Jun 2009 at 20:03, Tony Duell wrote:
The 9145 contains a 68000 CPU and some battery-backed
RAM modules,
and alas some ASICs. One day I'll figure out something about it.
Probably later than my Adic drive, then. It's got a 6800 and a 2716
EPROM with a 3M copyright sticker on it--one of several cards stacked
up in a little card cage with backplane under and behind the tape
area. If you stick a traditional DC300/600... tape in it, it spins
it briefly before announcing with a loud buzz and LED that there's a
fault condition.
--Chuck
5 Jun
5 Jun
8:14 p.m.
On 4 Jun 2009 at 20:03, Tony Duell wrote:
Probably...
The HP9144 (16 track) has a 68B09 and maybe another microcontroller in
it. Which is what I expected given what you find in the HP hard disk
boxes. When I took the conver off that 9145, I was rather suppised by the
big 64 pin DIL package...
The 9145 contains a 68000 CPU and some
battery-backed RAM modules,
and alas some ASICs. One day I'll figure out something about it.
Probably later than my Adic drive, then. It's got a 6800 and a 2716 EPROM with a 3M copyright sticker on it--one of
several cards stacked
up in a little card cage with backplane under and behind the tape
One of the HP drives (I think it's the 9144 went through many revisions
with different numbers of PCBs. Some had 2 boards under the mchanism and,
ITRC, 3 boards for the cotnroller fitted round it, I think the latest
versio had everything on one PCB. Mien is somewhere in the middle...
area. If you stick a traditional DC300/600... tape in
it, it spins
it briefly before announcing with a loud buzz and LED that there's a
fault condition.
I seem to rememebr the HP drives do something similar
-tony
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