9-Track Tape Drive on RS6000

[grx0551 at uoft02.utoledo.edu]

We have an IBM PC/RT at our location. We ended up buying
a 9-track 1/2 inch 1600 bpi tape reader from Dickens Data
Systems. The tape drive is a Cipher-F880S, which is a
genuine SCSI device. Dickens added a "steel box" at the back 
of this device, and supplied a driver.

Currently we are in the process of trading in the RT and
getting an RS6000-530. It has a SCSI interface, hence I
tried to hook up the same tape reader, and had no luck.

My questions:

	1. Is IBM's RS6000 SCSI, an Industry Standard SCSI?

	2. Can I buy a Cipher 9-track tape drive and hook it
	   up, without any hardware additions?

	3. Do we need a special driver written for this?

The reason I am writing this is, I paid Dickens an astronomical
price, which was 4 times the list price of the drive directly
from Cipher for the drive, cables and driver software. Now they
want, the cost of the drive for new driver software and an 
additional steel box behind the drive. I bought the drive from 
them only 6 months back.

I would appreciate any response in this matter. Thanks.


					Raj Amireddy/
                                        Pat Erabelli.
					Solartec Inc.,
					(216)332-8551