*BSD News Article 15567


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From: "Andrew Cornwall" <Andrew@oti.on.ca>
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: FAQ: 386BSD/NetBSD Compatible tape drive list
Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Date: 3 May 1993 19:08:42 -0700
Organization: Object Technology International, Inc.
Lines: 277
Sender: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu
Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu
Message-ID: <AndrewMon3May1993201612EST@oti.on.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu



These tape drives have been reported as working (or not working) on
386BSD or NetBSD, either in articles on USENET or in response to
previous postings.  If you know any more details, want to point out
errors, know another tape drive works (or doesn't), have any
suggestions for additions/changes to the FAQ, or anything else
useful, please send your reports to:

          andrew@oti.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)  or
          rsk@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bob Kemp)

PLEASE HELP TO UPDATE THIS LIST BY PROVIDING COMMENTS AND NEW
INFO.  IN RETURN, WE WILL POST UPDATES AND TRY TO MAKE THE LIST
AVAILABLE TO ANYONE INTERESTED.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
        This list is not guaranteed to be 100% correct.
        We don't know much about tape drives as yet, so
        we are only collating information provided by others.
        By getting feedback on this list, we hope to improve
        it into an FAQ.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THANK-YOU:
        Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this list. Without
        your help, it wouldn't exist!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

MANUFACTURER CONTACTS:
        Archive is a Maynard company bought by Conner
                Sales:     +1 714 641 0279
                Technical: +1 800 227 6296
        [informant: mq8qc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu (KARAGEORGIOU ANGELOS)]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVES:

Format of each entry is as follows:
Name:           {name of the device; if you're reporting, please be as
                 specific as possible}
Capacity:       {Maximum size of the device}
Approx Cost:    {Roughly what you paid}
Interface:      {How it talks to the machine - SCSI, PC bus, etc}
Controllers:    {What controller you're using - Adaptec 1542B, etc}
Informant:      {Who says it works}
Comments:       {Anything good or bad you feel like saying}


Name:           Archive 2150
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:
Informant:      ejh@slustl.slu.edu (Eric J. Haug)
Comments:       works well with both the driver in the distribution
                kernel and julians' SCSI drivers.


Name:           Archive Python 4???
Capacity:       2GB on 90m tape
Approx Cost:    US$1149
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542b
Informant:      admerlev@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (me 8-))
Comments:       nice device!!!, works like a charm, tar w/ original
                scsi-driver plus variable block length patch, under DOS:
                GTAR, ASPIBIN (ASPI-TAR), PCTOOLS 8.0, COREL-SCSI


Name:           Archive [exact model unknown]
Capacity:       60Mb
Approx Cost:    US$1800 list price (4-5 yrs ago)
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      sjg@melb.bull.oz.au
Comments:       [Came with sun386i.  It has an] emulex board [that]
                acts as an embedded controller (like SCSI disks have).
                The drive is good for 5Mb per minute I believe which is
                also what my 1542b is set for.  Certainly the tape
                steams _very_ well, much better than it ever did on the
                sun386i!


Name:           Cipher Model 540
Capacity:       45M/60M (probably/hopefully)
Approx Cost:    Loaned to me in `vintage appearance' (Much dust) - No idea !
Interface:      SCSI 1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      Julian Stacey   <stacey@guug.de>
Comments:       Shows promise, Cant yet call it truly usefull though:
                The Good Bit:
                        I have seen it stream constantly on 386bsd.
                The Bad Bit:
                        I can't use it as a usefull drive because it keeps
                        dropping out with errors.
                        The fault does not lie in the media, & most probably
                        not with external power supply or scsi cable -
                        I'm working on it.


Name:           Cipher ST-150F
Capacity:       150Mb
Approx cost:    US$300 (incl. interface)
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Cipher
Informant:      hideki@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp (YOSHIDA Hideki)
Comments:       works well with blocksize <= 4b


Name:           COMTEK Gigatape 1200 4mm external DAT
Capacity:       1.2 Gb
Approx Cost:    US$800
Interface:      SCSI 1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      Rich@rice.edu
Comments:       Uses formatted, fixed blocksize tapes.  Only
                partial success writing  about 400Mb so far.


Name:           Sankyo ST525
Capacity:       525 Mbyte
Approx Cost:    6000 SEK (US$850)
Interface:      SCSI (SCSI-2)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      jonas@carmen.volvo.se (Jonas Lagerblad)
Comments:       everything works allright except for one crash
                The SCSI bus seemed hang after running
                "dump 0uf - /dev/rsd0a | gzip --best | dd of=/dev/rst0 bs=64k"
                for approx 1 hour. If I skip the compression everything works
                perfectly. (I am using Julian's SCSI driver)
                386BSD-0.1 patchkit 0.2 patches 0-110


Name:           Tandberg 3600 series
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      fredriks@austin.ibm.com (Lars Fredriksen)
Comments:       IN DEVELOPMENT as far as I know. Not working yet?


Name:           Tandberg 3660
Capacity:       250 M
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      Per Anders Olausson <pao@cd.chalmers.se>
                meidinge@ps2zenger1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de(Thomas Meidinger)
Comments:       DC6250, DC6150 (not tested) and DC600A [by pao]


Name:           Tandberg 3820 5 1/4" HH internal QIC 525 SCSI streamer
Capacity:       up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed
Approx cost:    (I bought mine two years ago--it wasn't cheap :-)
Interface:      SCSI-1/2
Controllers:    I used the AHA1542B
Informant:      tmh@first.gmd.de (Thomas M. Hoberg)
                stacey@guug.de (Julian Stacey)
Comments:       Works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel
                and julians' SCSI drivers. Reads all QIC media (tested
                QIC 40/60/120/150/525) Writes QIC 120/150/250/320/525
                (120/150/525 tested) Includes a 256k buffer. 2 rw
                speeds: 83k/s for QIC<320, 200k/sec for 320+
                Occasionally the file system can't keep up at
                200k/sec on backups (small files), somewhat more often
                on restores. The drive can directly seek to any block
                on the tape, so in theory at least with the
                appropriate device drive you could mount a file system
                on it (you better keep fragmentation low :-) As you
                can guess, I am EXTREMELY happy with it.
                [tmh]

                The Good Bit:
                It streams constantly without error (~40mins for 525M
                write @ 60K blocking).  Tape drive shares bus with 3
                SCSI-2 Seagate drives also OK with a SCSI-1 Micropolis 1684-7.
                The Bad Bit:
                We (several us of using these TDC3820s on different hardware)
                have undergone an eerom + eprom autodensity upgrade to allow
                150M writes (previously could only read 150M tapes +r&w 525M);
                this known as Revision 04908, Done 92 08 28.
                There is some kind of block size problem that prevents
                us reliably exchanging 525M tapes, 150M seems OK,
                problem is tape hardware oriented I believe,
                not 386BSD specific.
                Problem pre-existed the 150M write capability upgrade.
                A friend with same 386bsd + TDC3820 + 1542A cant read my tapes,
                neither can a PCS (M68000 based) computer with a TDC3820
                [stacey]


Name:           WangDAT 3200
Capacity:       1Gb (advertised 4-8Gb w/ compression)
Approx cost:    US$1200-$1300 approx
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:
Informant:      conklin@talisman.kaleida.com (J.T. Conklin)
                cgd@postgres.Berkeley.edu
Comments:       Works great with Julian's SCSI drivers and an Adaptec 1742...
                (I use it to do my dumps, and I've actually checked and made
                sure the restores work...  8-) [cgd]



Name:           Wangtek 5099EN
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      386bsd.FAQ
Comments:


Name:           Wangtek 5099SC24, this is a QIC drive (same mechanical drive
                as 5099EN24) with a QIC24 to SCSI board by wangtek full height
Capacity:       60Mb w/DC600A, 100Mb w/DC6250
Approx cost:    Used as is drives US$25.00/each, refurbs ~US$100.00
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      rgrimes@agora.rain.com
Comments:       works well with both the driver in the distribution
                kernel and julians' SCSI drivers.  Very old full height
                driver readily availiable in the surplus market.  I know
                where there are 50 or so of these for $25.00/each as is,
                they are pulls from old workstations.


Name:           Wangtek 5150EQ
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      386bsd.FAQ
Comments:


Name:           Wangtek 5150ES
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      berry@max.IN-Berlin.DE (Stefan Behrens)
Comments:       [With original 0.1 SCSI ...] it streams constantly and
                works without any errors.  The tape drive is the only
                device on the SCSI bus.  It works great with the
                original as drivers.  But with Julians new st stuff
                there are a lot of problems.  I can read from the tape
                but writing usually does not work!


Name:           Wangtek 5525ES
Capacity:
Approx cost:    US$600, CDN$1000
Interface:      Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1742
Controllers:    SCSI
Informant:      bky@eco.twg.com (Brian Yasaki)
                andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)
Comments:       Writes QIC120, 150, 250, 525. Reads QIC24 as well
                (untested). Works with the distribution kernel.



END OF COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVE LIST

==========================================================================
Andrew Cornwall, OTI Support
Object Technology International, Inc.
2670 Queensview Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8K1

voice:(613)820-1200  fax:(613)820-1202  support@oti.on.ca

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