Tar (and other?) blocking question

[Chris Torek]

In article <965 at riddle.UUCP> andrew at riddle.UUCP (Andrew Beattie) writes:
>... I never met a device driver that could handle bigger than 20b

20b (in dd terms) is a mere 10240 bytes.  Certainly any decent tape drive
should not mind 32 kB at 6250 bpi.  (Beyond 10k at 1600 and 32k at 6250,
conventional 9 track tapes become overly susceptible to errors.)  Modern
cartridge tape drives (QIC and 8mm) handle large (>1MB) records without
trouble, although they actually split them into smaller blocks (typically
1024 B).
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris