9-Track Tape Drive on RS6000

[Frank Cannavale III]

In article <1991Mar4.203348.3058 at uoft02.utoledo.edu> grx0551 at uoft02.utoledo.edu writes:

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

Yes, it's real scsi.

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

Yes, but it must be scsi. That 'steel box' is the scsi converter.

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

Yes, you sure do. When I tried doing a config, ended with 888, etc...
I am continuing to investigate this, however...

>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 have 2 RT 130 systems with dickings F880.  I looked briefly at
converting that drive to any of the System 6000s here.  It is not
worth the effort.  Get the IBM 9-track drive, if you really, *REALLY*
need 9-track.  There is no other easy way of putting 9-track on that
box.  The IBM 9-track is, by the way, OEMed from HP.  Looks just like
a 7980 inside. Ultimate resells IBM and HP & we have found the HP
stuff to be really great. If you need that drive its worth the price.~

>From "IBM Risc System/6000 Quick Reference Guide as of November 19,
1990 (1991 Prices)"

Model:  9348;  Feature:  012;  Magnetic Tape Unit Model 12;  $22,000;
9-Track, 6250/1600 bpi, 1MB buffer, all but 930.

BTW, I don't know if IBM re-roms the 9-track from HP to change the
scsi id stuff, as they do with the exebyte 8mm tape drive.  I've had
both opened up and the IBM version of the 8mm clearly had roms with an
IBM copyright, but I don't remember seeing any IBM copyright labels on
the roms in the 9348.  (Just a lot of HP chips) HP sells a scsi
version of the 7980, but I only have the HP-IB versions, so never
tried using a scsi 7890 (from HP) on a S6000.  The HP7980 is about the
same price as the IBM 9348, but the HP7979 (1600 bpi only) is only
13,400 (December 1990 price guide - HPIB interface)

Don't know what will work for you, but that is everything I know
about 9-track in the System 6000.
-- 
Frank Cannavale III UUCP:!uunet!ulticorp!frank NET:ulticorp!frank at uunet.uu.net
"Yesterday Mr Hall wrote that the printer's proofreader was improving my
punctuation for me, and I telegraphed orders to have him shot without giving
him time to pray." Mark Twain (Speaking about his publisher)