Symbolics MCD-405 tape drive / Georgens Industries

[Al Kossow]

On 10/8/15 11:15 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
> Does anyone have a loose 3M/Georgens MCD-405 tape drive they could take board pictures
> and firmware dumps from, or any of the other MCD-40 series tape drives? I'm trying to
> figure out how similar it is to the one in the Apple 40mb tape drive.
>

looks like Brad went down this rabbit hole 10 years ago

List:       classiccmp
Subject:    QIC-100 SCSI tape drive?
From:       Brad Parker <brad () heeltoe ! com>
Date:       2004-03-29 15:01:57
Message-ID: 200403291501.i2TF1vX09756 () mwave ! heeltoe ! com
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Anyone have a QIC-100 SCSI tape drive drive?  Or know where to get one?

Seems like there was a brief window when such a thing existed, but I
can't seem to find any evidence on the web.  I must be searching for the
wrong thing.  I probably need a specific product.

I've got a qic-150 drive (the large 4x6x.5" carts).  I need a qic-100 drive.

(I suspect it's the same size cart as a TU-58.  I don't plan to use it to
read TU-58's, but who knows, maybe it will read them)

---

Other Google searches turned up articles in InfoWorld saying the format was
developed by Tallgrass, which explains the ASIC with their name on in inside the
3M/Apple tape mechanism I have pictures of on bitsavers/3M and that Gammamat is QIC-100

At least the on-tape format is documented in the QIC spec.