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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!newspump.sol.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!rtd.com!dgy From: dgy@rtd.com (Don Yuniskis) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: whats a good external SCSI tape? Date: 4 Nov 1996 21:59:12 GMT Organization: CICDO Lines: 38 Message-ID: <55lovg$hs0@baygull.rtd.com> References: <DzHp5B.6Bt.G.nanguo@nanguo.chalmers.com.au> <54dhae$3gs@uriah.heep.sax.de> <54j67v$soq@newsbr.eunet.fr> <BZOzHFO.smartsignal@delphi.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: seagull.rtd.com In article <BZOzHFO.smartsignal@delphi.com>, Jim Nelson <smartsignal@delphi.com> wrote: >Frederic MARAND <Frederic.Marand@osinet.fr> writes: > >>It seems many people dislike helical scan backup units, but I never >>could figure out why: we've sold tons of them, even to customers I would attribute it more to folks' comments regarding failures they've experienced. "Repeat customers" could just be accepting a certain failure rate as "normal" -- or, perhaps not experiencing any problems. They could also be unaware of other options that exist. And, lastly, they could simply be tied to a particular technology for compatibility with existing software, other tape units within the facility, preexisting media, etc. >- Doubtless a fear of the misunderstood. Helical scan has been used >successfully for forty years to handle video and data recording. Yes, but there are differences between "consumer", and "industrial" grade transports! The quality and price differential is often a factor of 3 to 5 times the best "consumer" unit for a moderately priced industrial unit. How abundant are consumer DAT drives (e.g., for *audio*) at 1/5th the price of a DAT tape transport (assuming the argument that they are "industrial" grade...) Helical scan has a LOT of moving parts when contrasted, for example, to DLT. > Maybe it just sounds >scary! Wonder how nervous the anecdote driven would get if they really >knew how DRAM worked? Imagine all those precious bit patterns nestled >in a matrix of myriads of tiny capacitors - Egads! You mean my data has >a time constant! If some thing called refresh doesn't happen my bits do >what??? Pass transistors? Huh? Oh well, back to work. "LOOK OUT!!!! HERE COMES AN ALPHA PARTICLE!!!!!" --don