25 Aug
2015
25 Aug
'15
2:02 p.m.
In the nineties I've workes as electronican and system administrator at the
institue of geophyics at our local University of Mining and Technology here
in Freiberg Germany.
Some day I've got a call from Motorola in Munich, they wanted to get rid of
some old computers and asked if we had some use for them, I've sayed yes.
As far as I know we got 3 Computers, one was an 68000 Unix system from
philips, some kind of Microcomputer development system for 8080 or 8085,
I've got the system running but since there wasn't much software on the
disk we had not much use for this thing. The disk was alsready dying and
lived not that long.
The next thing was a desktop VME System from Motorola, IMHO equipped with
an 68010, some MMUs, an color Monitor ad Harddisk and Floppy.. it run some
kind of VDOS (or so) .. or VME-DOS or soemthing.., I remember that we had some
documentiation for it and I've reinstalled that VDOS.. but not much use for
that thing also.
The 3rd Computer was the most interestng one. That thing was labeled
"Applikon Workstation" (as far as I remember, may be Applicon..).
That was some kind of a microvax made by Schlumberger.
It had an CPU that sat in a QBUS Backplane and a QBUS to UNIBUS Bridge.
The CPU was only a double sized board (!), an Emulex UC07 conected the disk
to the machine and so far as I remember there was some kind of graphics
board on the unibus side. I've repaired the CPU Board by changing the
RSA232 Drivers for the console and the beast came to live. I've fiddeled
around with the TK50 Tapes containing VMS4.6 (if my memory not fails) but
could'nt get warm with VMS... Installed NetBSD and failed.
NetBSD was'nt booting from the SCSI Drives with the Emulex, someone sent
me an UDA50 and I was able to install and boot NetBSD, but had to key in
the loader at the chevron every time I had to boot..
I've sent the Emulex to Ragge for diagnostics and never got it back.
The Machine ran for years as ftp server at the institute until I've pulled
the plug. Have never seen a picture from that graphics board.
I've leaved the University in 1989, the machine sat on the garret of the
building to this time, I'm pretty sure it's long gone...
Now I'm fiddeling with VAXen again and that old thing came to mind, looked
with google but could'nt find a machine like this, not even a Microvax with
a only doubles sized CPU Board like an KDF-11.
The question now is...is someone knowing of a beast like this?
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
25 Aug
25 Aug
2:09 p.m.
The name sounds familiar ... not sure why ... it turns out they had their
main offices here in Ann Arbor, MI at some point, as an aside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicon
Best,
Sean
On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 5:02 PM, Holm Tiffe <holm at freibergnet.de> wrote:
In the nineties I've workes as electronican and
system administrator at the
institue of geophyics at our local University of Mining and Technology here
in Freiberg Germany.
Some day I've got a call from Motorola in Munich, they wanted to get rid of
some old computers and asked if we had some use for them, I've sayed yes.
As far as I know we got 3 Computers, one was an 68000 Unix system from
philips, some kind of Microcomputer development system for 8080 or 8085,
I've got the system running but since there wasn't much software on the
disk we had not much use for this thing. The disk was alsready dying and
lived not that long.
The next thing was a desktop VME System from Motorola, IMHO equipped with
an 68010, some MMUs, an color Monitor ad Harddisk and Floppy.. it run some
kind of VDOS (or so) .. or VME-DOS or soemthing.., I remember that we had
some
documentiation for it and I've reinstalled that VDOS.. but not much use for
that thing also.
The 3rd Computer was the most interestng one. That thing was labeled
"Applikon Workstation" (as far as I remember, may be Applicon..).
That was some kind of a microvax made by Schlumberger.
It had an CPU that sat in a QBUS Backplane and a QBUS to UNIBUS Bridge.
The CPU was only a double sized board (!), an Emulex UC07 conected the disk
to the machine and so far as I remember there was some kind of graphics
board on the unibus side. I've repaired the CPU Board by changing the
RSA232 Drivers for the console and the beast came to live. I've fiddeled
around with the TK50 Tapes containing VMS4.6 (if my memory not fails) but
could'nt get warm with VMS... Installed NetBSD and failed.
NetBSD was'nt booting from the SCSI Drives with the Emulex, someone sent
me an UDA50 and I was able to install and boot NetBSD, but had to key in
the loader at the chevron every time I had to boot..
I've sent the Emulex to Ragge for diagnostics and never got it back.
The Machine ran for years as ftp server at the institute until I've pulled
the plug. Have never seen a picture from that graphics board.
I've leaved the University in 1989, the machine sat on the garret of the
building to this time, I'm pretty sure it's long gone...
Now I'm fiddeling with VAXen again and that old thing came to mind, looked
with google but could'nt find a machine like this, not even a Microvax with
a only doubles sized CPU Board like an KDF-11.
The question now is...is someone knowing of a beast like this?
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
26 Aug
26 Aug
12:12 a.m.
Holm Tiffe wrote:
In the nineties I've workes as electronican and
system administrator at the
institue of geophyics at our local University of Mining and Technology here
in Freiberg Germany.
Some day I've got a call from Motorola in Munich, they wanted to get rid of
some old computers and asked if we had some use for them, I've sayed yes.
As far as I know we got 3 Computers, one was an 68000 Unix system from
philips, some kind of Microcomputer development system for 8080 or 8085,
I've got the system running but since there wasn't much software on the
disk we had not much use for this thing. The disk was alsready dying and
lived not that long.
The next thing was a desktop VME System from Motorola, IMHO equipped with
an 68010, some MMUs, an color Monitor ad Harddisk and Floppy.. it run some
kind of VDOS (or so) .. or VME-DOS or soemthing.., I remember that we had some
documentiation for it and I've reinstalled that VDOS.. but not much use for
that thing also.
The 3rd Computer was the most interestng one. That thing was labeled
"Applikon Workstation" (as far as I remember, may be Applicon..).
That was some kind of a microvax made by Schlumberger.
It had an CPU that sat in a QBUS Backplane and a QBUS to UNIBUS Bridge.
The CPU was only a double sized board (!), an Emulex UC07 conected the disk
to the machine and so far as I remember there was some kind of graphics
board on the unibus side. I've repaired the CPU Board by changing the
RSA232 Drivers for the console and the beast came to live. I've fiddeled
around with the TK50 Tapes containing VMS4.6 (if my memory not fails) but
could'nt get warm with VMS... Installed NetBSD and failed.
NetBSD was'nt booting from the SCSI Drives with the Emulex, someone sent
me an UDA50 and I was able to install and boot NetBSD, but had to key in
the loader at the chevron every time I had to boot..
I've sent the Emulex to Ragge for diagnostics and never got it back.
The Machine ran for years as ftp server at the institute until I've pulled
the plug. Have never seen a picture from that graphics board.
I've leaved the University in 1989, the machine sat on the garret of the
building to this time, I'm pretty sure it's long gone...
Now I'm fiddeling with VAXen again and that old thing came to mind, looked
with google but could'nt find a machine like this, not even a Microvax with
a only doubles sized CPU Board like an KDF-11.
The question now is...is someone knowing of a beast like this?
Regards,
Holm
Hmm...my old memory is fading... it was a pretty much standard KA630-AA CPU
in that machine, I've found my original mailing from 9/1995 in the archive:
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-vax/1995/09/27/0000.html
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
6 a.m.
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their pdp11 software on them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 3:12 AM, Holm Tiffe <holm at freibergnet.de> wrote:
Holm Tiffe wrote:
In the nineties I've workes as electronican
and system administrator at
the
institue of geophyics at our local University of
Mining and Technology
here
in Freiberg Germany.
Some day I've got a call from Motorola in Munich, they wanted to get rid
of
some old computers and asked if we had some use
for them, I've sayed yes.
As far as I know we got 3 Computers, one was an 68000 Unix system from
philips, some kind of Microcomputer development system for 8080 or 8085,
I've got the system running but since there wasn't much software on the
disk we had not much use for this thing. The disk was alsready dying and
lived not that long.
The next thing was a desktop VME System from Motorola, IMHO equipped with
an 68010, some MMUs, an color Monitor ad Harddisk and Floppy.. it run
some
kind of VDOS (or so) .. or VME-DOS or
soemthing.., I remember that we
had some
documentiation for it and I've reinstalled
that VDOS.. but not much use
for
that thing also.
The 3rd Computer was the most interestng one. That thing was labeled
"Applikon Workstation" (as far as I remember, may be Applicon..).
That was some kind of a microvax made by Schlumberger.
It had an CPU that sat in a QBUS Backplane and a QBUS to UNIBUS Bridge.
The CPU was only a double sized board (!), an Emulex UC07 conected the
disk
to the machine and so far as I remember there was
some kind of graphics
board on the unibus side. I've repaired the CPU Board by changing the
RSA232 Drivers for the console and the beast came to live. I've fiddeled
around with the TK50 Tapes containing VMS4.6 (if my memory not fails) but
could'nt get warm with VMS... Installed NetBSD and failed.
NetBSD was'nt booting from the SCSI Drives with the Emulex, someone sent
me an UDA50 and I was able to install and boot NetBSD, but had to key in
the loader at the chevron every time I had to boot..
I've sent the Emulex to Ragge for diagnostics and never got it back.
The Machine ran for years as ftp server at the institute until I've
pulled
the plug. Have never seen a picture from that
graphics board.
I've leaved the University in 1989, the machine sat on the garret of the
building to this time, I'm pretty sure it's long gone...
Now I'm fiddeling with VAXen again and that old thing came to mind,
looked
with google but could'nt find a machine like
this, not even a Microvax
with
a only doubles sized CPU Board like an KDF-11.
The question now is...is someone knowing of a beast like this?
Regards,
Holm
Hmm...my old memory is fading... it was a pretty much standard KA630-AA CPU
in that machine, I've found my original mailing from 9/1995 in the archive:
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-vax/1995/09/27/0000.html
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
6:34 a.m.
Jacob Ritorto wrote:
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty
sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their pdp11 software on them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
Most PDP-11 software distributions on tape were labelled
with the software and the version. Any idea of what is
on the various tapes?
Jerome Fine
6:43 a.m.
On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to>
wrote:
If I don't run out of time today, I'll check at the warehouse this
afternoon and report back...
Jacob Ritorto
wrote:
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their
pdp11 software on them
in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
Most PDP-11 software distributions on tape were labelled
with the software and the
version. Any idea of what is
on the various tapes?
28 Aug
28 Aug
4:45 p.m.
OK, I'm wondering if we're even talking about the same thing here. This
stuff's all labeled Applicon, not Applikon. Nonetheless, here's what I
found. I think there's more like these buried around here somewhere.
https://goo.gl/photos/p2RTXn62xBmv1Ltf9
On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 9:43 AM, Jacob Ritorto <jacob.ritorto at gmail.com>
wrote:
On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Jerome H. Fine
<jhfinedp3k at compsys.to>
wrote:
If I don't run out of time today, I'll check at the warehouse this
afternoon and report back...
Jacob
Ritorto wrote:
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their
pdp11 software on them
in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
Most PDP-11 software distributions on tape were labelled
with the software and the
version. Any idea of what is
on the various tapes?
11:17 p.m.
Jacob Ritorto wrote:
OK, I'm wondering if we're even talking about
the same thing here. This
stuff's all labeled Applicon, not Applikon. Nonetheless, here's what I
found. I think there's more like these buried around here somewhere.
https://goo.gl/photos/p2RTXn62xBmv1Ltf9
Well.. Applicon is the right spelling. I've found my original mail to
the NetBSD list from 1995 in the archives where I've listet the contents
of the machine:
Hi,
I have got a "Applicon Worstation". This Workstation contains :
1 MicroVAXII CPU KA630-AA
1 MicroVAX Memory 8MB
1 tmscp controller + tk50
1 DELQA Ethernet controller
1 MDB M58823A
1 MDB DWQ
1 M3106 4 Line Async MUX
1 Host Sil-2 PCA P/N 31970-001 INTFC SERIAL HOST
1 NEAT PCA P/N 33090-001 ... looks like a serial connected graphics dev.
1 Disk controller P/N 12272-001 Emulex SCSI labeled UC0410201-03B
(solder side of pcb labelled QEC-3V0)
currently 1 Harddisk Micropolis 1375 (170Mb)
This machine runs with VMS 5.1 without problems.
I have tried to install NetBSD 1.0 with the tk50 (files tk50-file?-10A).
I can run Nboot, label the Disk, and have successfully installed the
Miniroot
in the swap partition.
I've spelled it Applicon to this time and to this teme the machine was next
to me..
..so it seems to be the right stuff, but besides the fact that I can read
9 Track tapes with an TSZ07 I don't even think that the machine still
exists... In any case it is out of reach.
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583
www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741
26 Aug
26 Aug
12:20 p.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/26/2015 8:00 AM, Jacob Ritorto wrote:
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty
sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their pdp11 software on them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
I have an HP 9 Track drive (800 - 6250 BPI), and a "baking" setup I can
use if you wanted to send them to Madison, WI.
JRJ
12:21 p.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On Wed, 26 Aug 2015, Jay Jaeger wrote:
On 8/26/2015 8:00 AM, Jacob Ritorto wrote:
Just out of curiosity, which model HP drive is that? A modern streamer
with an 800bpi option?
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a
pretty sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their pdp11 software on them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
I have an HP 9 Track drive (800 - 6250 BPI), and a "baking" setup I can
use if you wanted to send them to Madison, WI.
2:17 p.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/26/2015 2:21 PM, Mike Loewen wrote:
On Wed, 26 Aug 2015, Jay Jaeger wrote:
Relatively modern: HP 88780B
On 8/26/2015 8:00 AM, Jacob Ritorto wrote:
Just out of curiosity, which model HP drive is that? A modern
streamer with an 800bpi option?
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a
pretty sizable stack of what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their pdp11 software on
them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going
again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
I have an HP 9 Track drive (800 - 6250 BPI), and a "baking" setup I can
use if you wanted to send them to Madison, WI. 
28 Aug
28 Aug
12:59 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
What takes, today, present time, to read 1/2-inch reel-to-reel tape?
Years ago, I've found literally HUNDREDS of half inch reel-to-reel tape,
stacked outside a telco switching building. I managed to scavenge one
hundred and ninety of them. Ended up throwing (because of lack of storing
space... and no prospect to be able to do anything with it...) 176. I kept
14 reels. Anyway... are there still people throwing/giving hardware able to
read that?
Hugs.
?.//
On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 6:17 PM, Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> wrote:
On 8/26/2015 2:21 PM, Mike Loewen wrote:
Just out of curiosity, which model HP drive is that? A modern
streamer with an 800bpi option?
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
Relatively modern: HP 88780B
On Wed, 26 Aug 2015, Jay Jaeger wrote:
> On 8/26/2015 8:00 AM, Jacob Ritorto wrote:
>
>> Ah, I knew that sounded familiar. I have a pretty sizable stack of
what
appear to be original nine-track tapes with their
pdp11 software on
them in
my collection. Any interest? I could try to get my tu-10 going
again to
image them, but might need some help
--jake
I have an HP 9 Track drive (800 - 6250 BPI), and a "baking" setup I can
use if you wanted to send them to Madison, WI. 
6:05 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On Aug 28, 2015, at 3:59 AM, Operon Lac <operon.lac
at gmail.com> wrote:
What takes, today, present time, to read 1/2-inch reel-to-reel tape?
Years ago, I've found literally HUNDREDS of half inch reel-to-reel tape,
stacked outside a telco switching building. I managed to scavenge one
hundred and ninety of them. Ended up throwing (because of lack of storing
space... and no prospect to be able to do anything with it...) 176. I kept
14 reels. Anyway... are there still people throwing/giving hardware able to
read that?
Yes, there are plenty of people who can read 9 track tape. More impressively still, there
are also people (not many) who can read 7 track tape.
Some of these have developed the skills and processes needed to recover data from old
tapes, which often requires special case to avoid having the oxide come off on the first
read attempt. I believe there are also some who have created specialized drives with DSP
technology, able to recover data from marginal tapes that standard drives would not
handle.
If you have tapes but no drive, and an interest in having the data recovered, you should
ask here; my experience is that you'll get pointers to people interested in helping
out, especially if there is some reason to believe the data to be recovered is
"interesting" or unusual in some way.
The same sort of comments apply to other old storage technology, like paper tape or
DECtape/LINCtape.
Disk drives (removable packs) seem to be harder, I suppose because there are so many
incompatible formats and a given drive will typically read only its own format. The RM80
pack I have will mechanically fit into an RM03 drive, but that drive won't read the
format...
paul
9:25 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/28/2015 2:59 AM, Operon Lac wrote:
What takes, today, present time, to read 1/2-inch
reel-to-reel tape?
Years ago, I've found literally HUNDREDS of half inch reel-to-reel tape,
stacked outside a telco switching building. I managed to scavenge one
hundred and ninety of them. Ended up throwing (because of lack of storing
space... and no prospect to be able to do anything with it...) 176. I kept
14 reels. Anyway... are there still people throwing/giving hardware able to
read that?
Hugs.
?.//
Well, obviously, it takes a 9 Track tape drive. I doubt you are likely
to find a give-away at this point. (I got one for nearly that, via
local university surplus, with a Pertec interface.) I purchased a SCSI
tape drive off of eBay for around $200. Currently I am using the SCSI
interface from the latter on the former drive.
They do show up on eBay from time to time (Search 9 Track Tape drive),
typically anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars on up. If you want
to hook one up to a PC, I suggest a SCSI interface as being easier to
manage - however the SCSI interface does seem to make error detection a
bit trickier.
Many/most 9 Track tapes (those from the early to mid-eighties until 1995
or so - what matters is the date of manufacture, not when they were
written) have to be "baked" before reading, owing to "sticky shed
syndrome". My experience with tapes earlier than that is that I can
read them without baking them first.
JRJ
29 Aug
29 Aug
8:57 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/28/15 9:25 AM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
Many/most 9 Track tapes (those from the early to
mid-eighties until 1995
or so - what matters is the date of manufacture, not when they were
written) have to be "baked" before reading, owing to "sticky shed
syndrome". My experience with tapes earlier than that is that I can
read them without baking them first.
Mid-80's are the worst, especially Memorex, and BASF, which everyone used
because they were cheap.
Whatever HP bought for their distribution tapes (probably Graham Magnetics) is very good.
IBM tape is good too.
DEC used crap tape for their distributions.
Sadly, AT&T and Mt XINU ALSO used especially bad tape in
the late 80's, so many of the Unix distributions I've been dealing with from
them lately are so sticky even after baking that they are impossible to deal
with.
If you are going to be processing a lot of tapes, get a portable "tape scraper"
(tape cleaner) and cover the blade. Retension the tapes with it at low speed
after baking. The shed on the cloth covering the blade will tell you how bad the
shed is. You can see a Graham Magentics portable cleaner in Paul's setup on the
right.
http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/proj.html
I've processed over a thousand tapes in the past ten years, and their condition
is not improving with time. Chuck has mentioned 3M Black Watch being bad, and I've
started to see that now too, which wasn't the case in the past.
9 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/29/15 8:57 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
I've processed over a thousand tapes in the past
ten years, and their condition
is not improving with time. Chuck has mentioned 3M Black Watch being bad, and I've
started to see that now too, which wasn't the case in the past.
There was a question about airflow in my oven this morning, so I shot a picture of the
inside, which will be on the bottom of the bitsavers main page in the afternoon. I also
put up the two old pictures of my old processing labs. Hopefully, my new lab space in
Fremont will be ready to move into soon.
10:46 a.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 08/29/2015 08:57 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
Mid-80's are the worst, especially Memorex, and
BASF, which everyone
used because they were cheap. Whatever HP bought for their
distribution tapes (probably Graham Magnetics) is very good. IBM tape
is good too. DEC used crap tape for their distributions.
I'll disagree about the worst. 70s Scotch 810x tapes from the 70s
suffer from "sticky bleed", where the binder has bled through the oxide
layer. The result is that the tape sticks to anything--heads, tape,
capstans, guide rollers, etc. A tape cleaning machine doesn't do
anything for that.
Scotch 800 series audio tape suffers the same issue and is well-known to
the tapeheads crowd.
My solution was to take a thick felt strip, anoint it with D5
(cyclomethicone) lubricant and attach it to a large round guide (made
from a 2" PVC pipe cap) on my tape cleaning
machine. Make a pass (you
may need to add D5 about midway through), read
immediately. D5
evaporates fairly quickly (< 1 hour) so re-treatment may be necessary.
Fortunately the stuff is utterly inert and doesn't permanently affect
the tape.
Needless to mention, you should clean your equipment after using this stuff.
--Chuck
1:23 p.m.
New subject: DEC 9 Track Tapes (was Re: Applikon Workstation?)
On 8/29/2015 10:57 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
On 8/28/15 9:25 AM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
You can add Burroughs SP 3200 and SP 5000 and SP 9000 to your "bad boy"
list.
I had good luck with a 3M 777 6250 BPI Security Computer Tape.
Like you, I have not had any issues with IBM tape.
One Graham Verituf Certified Zero Defect at 3200 FCI / 1600 BPI that I
processed did leave some residue, even after baking.
If a tape is at 1600 BPI, I can sometimes get through it even if it is
sticky after baking, so long as there are no retries. In fact, I have
taken to setting retries to the smallest possible number (I think it is
2) on the drive during my first attempt at reading a tape so that if it
does stick, I minimize the damage. A few times I have had luck with
doing that, having a couple of read errors, then cleaning the drive and
reading the tape again with the normal number of retries (9).
At 6250 BPI, the drive won't stream continuously, so if one of those is
sticky after baking, it is usually a challenge to get a good copy.
JRJ
Many/most 9 Track tapes (those from the early to
mid-eighties until 1995
or so - what matters is the date of manufacture, not when they were
written) have to be "baked" before reading, owing to "sticky shed
syndrome". My experience with tapes earlier than that is that I can
read them without baking them first.
Mid-80's are the worst, especially Memorex, and BASF, which everyone used
because they were cheap.
Whatever HP bought for their distribution tapes (probably Graham
Magnetics) is very good.
IBM tape is good too.
DEC used crap tape for their distributions.
Sadly, AT&T and Mt XINU ALSO used especially bad tape in
the late 80's, so many of the Unix distributions I've been dealing with
from
them lately are so sticky even after baking that they are impossible to
deal
with.
3177
days inactive
3181
days old
17 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
cclist＠sydex.com -
cube1＠charter.net -
holm＠freibergnet.de -
jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com -
jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to -
mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us -
operon.lac＠gmail.com -
paulkoning＠comcast.net -
scaron＠umich.edu