*BSD News Article 35597


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From: andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce
Subject: Compatible tape drive list for 386BSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD
Supersedes: <June94TapeList@noware.ocunix.on.ca>
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Date: 8 Sep 1994 10:50:51 -0700
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Status: RO


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The new-and-improved 386BSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD compatible tape list
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL0] Contents
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    TL0 You're reading it
    TL1 Administrivia
    TL2 Tape news
    TL3 Changed entries since last version
    TL4 How to add/update an entry
    TL5 Manufacturer Contacts
    TL6 Format of tape drive entry
    TL7 Compatible Tape Drive List


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL1] Administrivia:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone else aspires to the position of "co-editor of the tape FAQ",
please send me mail.  Until then, I'll use the "Royal We" in the tape
FAQ so I don't have to change all the text.  I'd especially like to hear
from people who are using something other than SCSI tape drives, since I
know almost nothing about non-SCSI tapes, and this is reflected in the
FAQ. 

The tape FAQ will be sent out bimonthly, rather than monthly.  The next
update of this list will be near the middle of October, 1994. 

 - Andrew Jr.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL2] Tape/driver news
------------------------------------------------------------------------

- none -


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL3] Changes since last version
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changes to:
    Archive ??? (60M)
    Archive 2525-S
    Conner C250MQT

Additions: 
    Colorado 250M Floppy tape
    EXABYTE 8500


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL4] How to add/update an entry
------------------------------------------------------------------------

These tape drives have been reported as working (or not working)
on 386BSD, NetBSD or FreeBSD, 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@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)

PLEASE HELP TO KEEP THIS LIST CURRENT 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 still don't know much about tape drives, so
        we are only collating information provided by others.

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


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL5] Manufacturer Contacts
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

        Tandberg
                Technical? +1 805 495 8384
        [informant: raeburn@uk.ac.soton.ecs.cygnus.com (Ken Raeburn)]
                Technical: VIMO <vimo@tdata.no> for firmware
                           upgrades, finding local office only.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL6] Format of tape drive entry
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A tape drive entry looks like this:

Name:           {name of the device; if you're reporting, please be as
                 specific as possible}
Capacity:       {Maximum amount of data the device can hold}
Approx Cost:    {What you paid (rough estimates are OK)}
Interface:      {How the tape talks to the OS - SCSI, PC bus, etc}
Controllers:    {What controller you're using - Bustek 445, etc}
Informant:      {Who says it works or doesn't}
Comments:       {Anything good or bad you feel like saying}

*** Please state in the Comments field which operating system you
*** are using and which version.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
[TL7] Compatible Tape Drive List
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name:           Archive ??? (60M)
Capacity:       60MB
Approx Cost:    
Interface:      QIC02/24
Controllers:    Archive SC499
Informant:      stark!gene@newsserv.cs.sunysb.edu (Gene Stark)
Comments:       I have been using the wt driver with an SC499
                controller and an Archive drive for nearly a year. 
                I am running FreeBSD-current (June 25, 1994).  I
                have had no trouble with it for several months. 
                The tape streams nicely with dump.  With restore
                and tar you have to use dd with larger block sizes
                to get streaming, but this is no different than
                other systems (like Sun) on which I have used this
                kind of tape drive.  The problems with error
                recovery and large block reads that I previously
                experienced with older versions of FreeBSD appear
                to be fixed. 



Name:           Archive 2060
Capacity:       60MB
Approx Cost:    US$200
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a
Informant:      duncan@zycad.com
Comments:       no observed problems when used with julian's drivers.
                works fine with 1542b/1742a



Name:           Archive 2150
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:    US$350-500
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a
Informant:      ejh@slustl.slu.edu (Eric J. Haug)
                admerlev@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (me 8-))
                duncan@zycad.com
                jfieber@sophia.smith.edu
Comments:       works well with both the driver in the distribution
                kernel and julians' SCSI drivers.   [ejh]

                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
                works fine with julian's drivers and 1542b/1742a
                    [admerlev/duncan]
                and with Adaptec 1542C + Julian's SCSI drivers [jfieber]

                S version (SCSI?) runs under FreeBSD:CombsSF@Salem.GE.COM
                2150S also known as Viper 150



Name:           Archive 2150L
Capacity:       150 Mb, 120 Mb
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Archive Viper SC402
Informant:      vak@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko)
Comments:       Works well, with new wt driver (by me and Sergey Ryzhkov).
                Supports 150Mb and 120 Mb formats on write and 150Mb, 120Mb
                and 60Mb formats on read.  It's possible to use mt command
                to rewind the tape, seek file forward etc.

                It's not a problem in the SCSI code. It's a firmware
                bug in (at least) the Archive Viper 150. Data can be
                appended only if the drive is ``totally sure'' that
                the tape is at end of recorded medium. This could be
                achieved by issuing a `space to end of recorded
                medium' command.  Unfortunately, the recent version of
                Julian's SCSI driver doesn't support this.  (Future
                versions might do.)

                As a workaround, it's possible to ``mt fsf'' after the
                last tape file, then issue another ``mt fsf'', which
                will result in an IO error (SCSI blank check, `no data
                found' appears on console), that should be ignored.
                At this point, the tape could be written to!
                 - joerg_wunsch@tcd-dresden.de



Name:           Archive 2525-S
Capacity:       QIC-24, QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-525
Approx Cost:    ca. 1000,- DM, US$460
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542C, Adaptec 1742A, Adaptec 1742B
Informant:      nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt)
                hm@hcshh.hcs.de (Hellmuth Michaelis)
                loodvrij%cyb@fredbox.cts.com (Bruce J. Keeler)
                musashi@com.netcom (Irving Moy)
                rml@midnight.MV.COM (Roger M. Levasseur)
                andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm)
                mld@netcom.com (Matthew Deter)
Comments:       Firmware Rev. 25462-007-seems to be important [nbladt]

                In contrary to what my dealer told me, it can read and WRITE
                QIC-150 tapes. Didn't have a chance to try QIC-120, or QIC-60,
                etc. yet.
                I am using 386bsd-0.1 (still with the first patchkit and
                all updates from Julian for his fabulous SCSI-driver kit)
                Sorry, no experience with the original driver because
                that driver doesn't work with the 1742A. [nbladt]

                Worked with Julian's driver out of the box. [hm]

                Since putting in Julian's drivers, with Dave Tweten's mods,
                it seems to work just fine.  [loodvrij]

                The drive docs specify that it can r/w QIC-120, 150, and 525.
                It can read QIC-24 but not write it.  I have read QIC-24
                tapes with it.  This is with FreeBSD 1.0.2 +
                Adaptec-1542C  [rml]

                A few days ago I couldn't install netbsd-09
                because I couldn't read the distribution from
                tape.  That was the reason for me ro try
                FreeBSD-1.0.2 (which worked) 
                Model: VIPER 2525 25462  Rev: -007 [andreas] 

                With a 16Meg DX33 ISA bus & 1542B controller I can
                do an ls -R from the root of a CDROM disk (like
                the FreeBSD 1.1R disk) while *streaming* the
                entire (200Meg, at the time) filesystem to disk. 
                Xwindows performace (ATI Ultra card) is still
                decent too.  Anyway, point is I am happy with the
                way FreeBSD handles this tape drive on my system. 
                It's fast.  Just as fast as the Viper's on our
                workstations at work.  Wokred great with the
                FreeBSD 1.1R drivers out of the box and the
                adaptec SCSI drivers as well.  (for GTAR under
                DOS). [mld]



Name:           Archive 5945C drive 
Capacity:       45MB used with wr0b device on a 450ft tape
Approx Cost:    0 (from a scrapped Apollo 3000)
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Archive SC400S
Informant:      Jens Tingleff, Imperial College, London SW7 2BT,
                jensting@ic.ac.uk
Comments:       The `wt' driver from FreeBSD-1.0R works just fine. The
                only change to the controller hardware was to rejumper
                the I/O address selection (jumper pad going A9 A8 ..
                A3) to locate the controller at 0x300.
 
                Reads tapes written on a SUN3 shoebox. Tapes written
                to rwt0b device do *not* read on the SUN. Multiple tar
                archjives (using device nrwt0b) works just fine.
                Doesn't quite stream with tar, and I'm not sure what
                the max speed is, I'm seing 2.5 MB/Min write speed
                using `tar -b 512', I have seen 4MB/Min read when
                using `dd'. 
 
                [The TAR program archived as TAR313US.ZIP at
                garbo.uwasa.fi works fine under DOS with this
                hardware, reading tapes written on both FreeBSD and on
                a SUN3 shoebox]



Name:           ARCHIVE Python 25501 4mm DAT
Capacity:       >1 Gb
Approx Cost:    ~US$1100
Interface:      SCSI 2
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, 1742
Informant:      Rich@rice.edu
Comments:       It works great so far, but I haven't figured out how
                to turn on the hardware compression.  Rich         



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 MicroStreamer F880 (1600bpi, 9 track PERTEC interface)
Capacity:       ???
Approx Cost:    $5000 for the drive in 1985
                $1000 for protocol Converter 1992
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec AHA-1542A to NCR ADP-53 to tape drive 
Informant:      mike@scrooge.uoregon.edu (Mike Hoffman)
Comments:       It is FAST, reads tape about the same speed as rewind.
                The SCSI controller runs the 9 track drive thru the
                converter and an Archive 2060S 60mb Cartridge tape
                drive directly.  After putting in the current
                patches and reading the PERTEC Specs it was almost
                "plug and play".  The ADP-53 is a protocol converter
                from/to SCSI/PERTEC, purchased from Laguna Data
                Systems (see Byte Magazine).

                Problems:
                mt does not seem to be of much use.  Forward spacing
                the 9 track tape is an iffy job (skipping the label
                on a labeled tape).  dd now does this (skip=1).

                I always get the error 'cannot prevent/allow'.  This
                is not a big deal (prevent or allow removal of
                tape).

                dd does not handle cr/lf at all well.  Could be all
                the protocol conversions or gnu dd just doesn't do
                it.  All files are read in as one line(no CR Lf
                etc).  The blocking and conversion options have no
                effect on line length.  Conversion from EBCDIC to
                ASCII works fine.  A small program to break up the
                file solves the long line problem.



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:           Cipher ST150-S
Capacity:       QIC-24(read only), QIC-120, QIC-150
Approx Cost:    1300,- DM (long ago ..)
Interface:      SCSI (better SCSI-I or CCS)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, 1742
Informant:      Hellmuth Michaelis (hm@hcshh.hcs.de)
Comments:       This drive responds with empty strings if asked for
                for it's vendors name and model.
                It has a strange format of the mode sense/set command
                blocks.
                By default, it reports a soft error back to the host
                which makes it a bit hard to work with.
                Problems solved with next release of Julian Elischer's
                enhanced SCSI driver (currently beta, July '93).
                oyang@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au reports an upgrade
                which involves a new ROM and cutting some traces.
                The drive responds: CIPHER : Model ST150S2 Rev: 2.0
                ANSI SCSI rev: 01 when asked for it's vendors names
                and model.



Name:           COMTEK Gigatape 1200 4mm external DAT
Capacity:       1.2 Gb
Approx Cost:    US$800
Interface:      SCSI 1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      rich@id.slip.bcm.tmc.edu (Rich Murphey)
Comments:       You can remove the COMTEK drive because I gave up on it:
                the vendor offered to upgrade me to a different drive,
                the Archive Python 25501 4mm DAT.



Name:           Colorado 250MB floppy tape
Capacity:       125MB uncompressed, claims 250MB compressed.
Appros Cost:    $200
Interface:      Special connector on the floppy cable.
Controllers:    floppy IDE controller.
Informant:      Erich Boleyn <erich@uruk.org>
Comments:       Causes kernel panic in FreeBSD 1.1.5 :-(,
                looking into it, but don't hold your breath.



Name:           Conner C250MQT
Capacity:       250 MB compressed, 125 not
Approx Cost:    approx $200
Interface:      Uses floppy disk controller on PC.
Controller:     ?
Informant:      tpw@ruth.ece.psu.edu (Tom Weldon)
                Jan Klier <klier@cs.tu-berlin.de>
Comments:       Maybe it works, but i couldnt get it to talk to 386BSD
                with GENERICISA kernel. [tpw]

                I got a 250MB Conner QIC-80 Tape Streamer for
                $176, and it works with FreeBSD-1.1R (kernel
                indicates that he detects a mountain-tape).  To
                use the tape you need the ft-utility, which is
                part of FreeBSD-1.1R.  It is used as a filter. 
                It's not very powerful, but I heard that there's a
                special version of tar, called qtar, underway that
                supports QIC-80 format, incremental backup and all
                the other small things you need. [klier]



Name:           DEC TZ30
Capacity:       96 MB (uses 3M CompacTape cartridges)
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
Comments:       Works with Julian's SCSI drivers.  Console reports "cannot
                prevent/allow" but this is not a problem.
                This is the native-SCSI half-height version of DEC's
                TK50Z drive.



Name:           DEC TZ857
Capacity:       18.2 GB (stacker unit with seven 2.6 GB CompacTape
                    III tapes)
Approx cost:    lots
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
Comments:       Works with Julian's SCSI drivers.  As with the TZ30,
                "cannot prevent/allow" is reported but operation
                continues.
                As 386bsd has no "mt online" yet, cartridge loading is
                done manually, but unloading/advancing is done through
                "mt offline" as under Ultrix.
                I don't really use this drive, but I had access to it
                for a day and tried it out...



Name:           Exabyte 8200 8mm
Capacity:       2.2 GB
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
                todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff) Nov 1993
Comments:       Works perfectly with Julian's SCSI drivers.
                I use it all the time for my system dumps and for
                exchanging files with other machines.
                Works  great with FreeBSD-1.0-RELEASE although
                'mt -status' doesn't work properly.


Name:           EXABYTE 8500 8mm
Capacity:       5.0 GB
Approx Cost:    normally $2200 new, $1300 used or so.
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    UltraStor 34F  SCSI-II
Informant:      Erich Boleyn <erich@uruk.org>
Comments:       It has so far worked perfectly with FreeBSD 1.1 & 1.1.5,
                though I've only used it for backups and restores,
                nothing fancy.  Particularly nice is that it streams
                at > 300k bytes/sec.
                There is a slight problem that when restoring a large
                file it doesn't seem to let me access the hard drive
                until it hits another file boundary.  Somewhat annoying,
                but not fatal.



Name:           Hewlett-Packard HP35480A DAT drive
Capacity:       4 GB
Approx Cost:    $1400
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      karl@neosoft.com
Comments:       Great drive, flawless performance.  Requires
                variable length tapedrive patches which should be
                in the patchkit, but I haven't checked.  (They were
                submitted around November of '92)



Name:           Sankyo ST525
Capacity:       525 Mbyte
Approx Cost:    6000 SEK (US$850), NZ$1400 (internal, Jan94)
Interface:      SCSI (SCSI-2)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      jonas@carmen.volvo.se (Jonas Lagerblad)
                nickg@nz.co.optimation (Nick Gridley)
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.  [jonas]

                I have no problems with this drive and FreeBSD
                (GAMMA,EPSILON,1.0) I have a BusTek 542B controller but
                no other SCSI devices (yet..).  Further, I mix 150 &
                525 tapes, and read the occasional 60m.  [nickg]



Name:           Sony SDT-1000 DAT
Capacity:       2 GB  on a 90 meter tape
Approx. Cost:   about $600 now, $3500 when purchased 3 yrs ago
Interface:      SCSI  (SCSI-2 also)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      steve@molly.dny.rockwell.com
Comments:       I have used it under 386BSD 0.1 and NetBSD 0.8.
                Under 386BSD, it didn't support all of the ioctl functions,
                but works without a hitch under NetBSD. I use it to do tar
                data backups and restores as well as interchanging data
                with an H-P 9000/755 using the HPUX tar command.



Name:           Tandberg 3600 series
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      fredriks@asiago.cs.wisc.edu (Lars Fredriksen),
                raeburn@uk.ac.soton.ecs.cygnus.com (Ken Raeburn)
Comments:       Tandberg SCSI driver work has been pulled into Julian's
                SCSI driver.
                So far I have not had any problems reading 30/60/150/250 Mb
                tapes, similarly no problems writing 150/250 Mb
                tapes.[fredriks]

                People can get firmware changes from Tandberg for the 3600
                and later drives which will make the drive act much like an
                Archive Viper 150MB drive (including identifying itself as
                such).  This is what Tandberg does for people who want to
                use the drives with Sun workstations. 

                With this replacement firmware, I was able to read and write
                tapes just fine with mostly stock NetBSD 0.9 (no
                scsi-related changes) and Linux, with an Adaptec 1542B
                controller. 
 
                Paul Rinaldi at Tandberg's east-coast office told me that
                people wanting to get this done should contact Bob Russell
                their factory at 805-495-8384 and ask for part # 966039,
                firmware revision B07:43.  The cost is about $40.  They
                recommend you send in your drive to get the replacement done
                by the factory, but you can probably get them to send you
                the replacement firmware, if you're into hacking hardware. 
 
                As I understood it, this firmware is intended for
                later-model tape drives than the 3600, but Paul
                and I tried it, and I've had no problems yet. 



Name:           Tandberg 3660
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      Per Anders Olausson <pao@cd.chalmers.se>
                meidinge@isar.de(Thomas Meidinger)
Comments:       DC6250, DC6150 (not tested) and DC600A.
                Reads and writes DC-6120 as well. [pao]



Name:           Tandberg TDC-3800 5.25" SCSI-1 325MB TBU
Capacity:       up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed
Approx cost:    Didn't buy it new.
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    AHA1542B
Informant:      vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (VaX#n8)
Comments:       Would not work with base 386bsd-0.1 kernel.
                After applying patch kit, everything worked fine.
                Only tested reads on 250MB, reads and writes on 325MB,
                and reads and writes on 525MB.  Works great.
                Also fine under NetBSD-0.9. Even got "aspitar" from
                wuarchive to read tars from DOS. Don't mix 525 and 325MB
                tapes though, causes heads to wear out fast. Coexists with
                SCSI-2 drives just fine. Wouldn't trade it for anything but a
                SCSI DAT or 8mm.Even then, I would have to think about it.



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:    AHA1542B, 1742A, DTC3290
Informant:      tmh@first.gmd.de (Thomas M. Hoberg)
                stacey@guug.de (Julian Stacey)
                tomb@gator.bocaraton.ibm.com (Thomas Bagli)
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 can't read my tapes,
                neither can a PCS (M68000 based) computer with a TDC3820
                [stacey]

                We paid DM1000 (~$625) in early 1991.  This was a very
                special price, and I estimate that the actual cost would be
                (very) approximately 50% more (~$950).
                I've used it with an Adaptec 1742A, a DTC3290 (caching 1542B
                emulation), and a Mylex ?376? (caching, but only under DOS)
                SCSI controllers.  It doesn't just stream, it screams.  I've
                never seen a streamer that just streams without a pause,
                rewind or such.  This one does (not to say that the Tandberg
                is the sole reason for this).
                [tomb]



Name:           WangDAT 3200
Capacity:       2Gb (up to 8Gb w/compression) on a 90 meter tape
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 5099EK
Capacity:       60M
Approx cost:
Interface:      PC/QIC-36
Controllers:
Informant:      robsch@robkaos.GUN.de (Robert Schien)
Comments:       The wt.c driver, which is delivered with FreeBSD-EPSILON,
                does not work with my Wangtek 5099EK (60 MB) tape drive.
                This drive has a PC/QIC-36 interface and it worked fine with
                ESIX 5.3.2D (For testing I tried SCO Xenix and ISC 2.2.1 and
                it worked with these OSs, too).  With the driver in
                386bsd-0.1, I could read tapes, but not write.  With the
                "improved" driver, I could neither read nor write (all minor
                devices tried). The solution was a driver from someone in
                Sweden (his name is Mikael Hybsch (sp?)), which worked for
                me already with 386bsd-0.1.



Name:           Wangtek 5099EN
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      Original 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:       250MB (QIC-150)
Approx cost:    400 UK pounds including software for DOS
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Wangtek QIC-02 included
Informant:      kd@doc.ic.ac.uk (K J Dryllerakis)
Comments:       Works with stock driver. Very very slow but reliable. Funny,
                it only seems to work if you use /dev/wt0 instead of /dev/rwt0.
                New driver in beta version by micke@dynas.se (Mikael Hybsch).



Name:           Wangtek 5150ES
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:    $500 in Germany
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542CF
Informant:      berry@max.IN-Berlin.DE (Stefan Behrens)
                duncan@zycad.com (Don)
Comments:       [With original 0.1 SCSI ...] it streams constantly
                and works without any errors.  Works with original
                as.c driver and with newer drivers from Julian
                [eg in patchkit 0.2.4].  [berry]

                Does not work with the 1742a and 386bsd!!!!!
                SCSI driver compatibility problems.  [duncan, ~Jun'93]
                NOTE: with the latest patchkit Stefan Behrens [berry]
                has reported that Julian's SCSI now works with it.
                No update yet on 1742A behaviour.

                works without any problems on any version of FreeBSD
                with the Adaptec 1542B and the 1542CF (the CF requires
                an up to date version of the SCSI driver). Used to work
                on 386bsd with newer drivers from Julian. I've also used
                the drive with Linux, Solaris2.1/x86 and DOS (Adaptecs
                ASPI and GNU tar) with success. [berry]



Name:           Wangtek 5525ES
Capacity:       525M
Approx cost:    US$600, CDN$1000
Interface:      Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1742
Controllers:    SCSI-1
Informant:      bky@eco.twg.com (Brian Yasaki)
                andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)
                Jeffrey Lang <jlang@COM.NeoSoft.sugar>
Comments:       Writes QIC120, 150, 250, 525. Reads QIC24 as well
                (untested). Works with the distribution kernel.
                jlang@neosoft.com reports problems with the "REV1"
                drive.

                In theory a jumper on JP2 will select SCSI-2 instead
                of SCSI-1, but I stuck a jumper there and still boot
                up as SCSI-1 on NetBSD 0.9 [andrew]



Name:           Wangtek 6200-HS
Capacity:       2GB
Approx cost:    $600 (refurbished)
Interface:      SCSI (SCSI II if controller supports)
Controllers:    Adaptec 154x, 1742, ...
Informant:      brians@logrus.rain.com (Brian Smith)
Comments:       Averages 150 KBytes/sec throughput uncompressed, tested
                with FreeBSD 1.02 and Adaptec 1542B.



Name:           Wangtek QT60 (aka Tecmar QT60)
Capacity:       60M
Approx cost:
Interface:      QIC 02
Informant:      tcombs@pacific.urbana.mcd.mot.com (Tim Combs)
Comments:       It works although does not stream under 386BSD 0.1

END OF COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVE LIST

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