3rd party tape drive in 6386: Anybody done it?

[Dennis S. Breckenridge]

In article <437 at amanue.UUCP>, jr at amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) writes:
> I hear the price from AT&T for a tape drive is pretty steep.  There are some
> inexpensive AT Bus tape drives with drivers for Xenix and possibly Interactive.
> Paul Homchick (cgh!paul) tells me that AT&T is claiming V.3.2 Xenix binary
> compatibility is so good it will link and run Xenix drivers.  If so this is
.
> than say $600 - $700?  I'd appreciate any war stories, good & bad.
> -- 
>  Jim Rosenberg

I have used a couple of controllers in both a 6386 and a 6386E (20 mhz) with
the AT&T Drivers. I must mention that I also run SysV r3.2 And I strongly 
suggest that you do the same. There were several problems with 3.1 that AT&T
corrected with the release of 3.2. I have tried the Wangtek PC-36 model III
controller (BTW AT&T wants this one on address 0x288) with both a 5099EN drive
(60 meg) and a 5125EN (125 meg). I use SYTOS for the DOS backups and cpio for
the unix ones. I have also used an Everex Clone of the Wangtek (unfortunately
I forget the model number) and a calper 60 and 125 meg drive. 
 You mentioned that 3.2 does provide XENIX Binary Driver Support, this is 
incorrect. UNIX/386 R3.2 does provide XENIX binary executable programs the 
correct environment to run but in no way does it let you run someone else's
driver. I even tried to glue in an Interactive tape driver, to no success.
 In so far as other peripherals running in the box I have been burned a few
times. For instance I have a MIDI (Roland MPU-401) interface that, after
installing IEM tools to patch in an DOS driver (so I can use Personal Composer)
hangs after the first bar of music. I have been trying to get the Documentation
for the board so I can write a proper device driver. I must mention that I am
extremely pleased with with AT&T and specifically the 6386E running UNIX/386 
V3.2 
-- 
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