tape streamers question

[pri=-10 Stuart Lynne]

In article <430 at marob.MASA.COM> samperi at marob.masa.com (Dominick Samperi) writes:
>Hmmm, does this mean, for example, that an Everex EV-36 controller can be
>used with an Archive FT60 tape drive, since Archive describes the interface
>used for this drive as a QIC-36 interface? And is it also true that the
>Everex EV-02 controller will work with any drive that uses the QIC-02
>interface, like the Archive VP series, or a similar Bell Tech drive?
>More generally, how interchangeable are various vendor's streamer controllers
>and drives? Is it possible to write software that will work with many
>different controllers/drives?
>-- 

I've had a Bell Tech External Cartridge for about a year and was quite
disappointed with the performance (system hanging for seconds will tape
doing things, low throughput, etc).

Last Tuesday I picked up a box of odd's and ends at an auction which
happened to include a couple of Achive 499-R controllers (the new short
ones). Ah ha, I said to myself, wonder if this would cure my tape problems?

So I borrowed a friends Archive tape system and played with various combo's
for a few days (this is under SCO Xenix). 

The end result's:

	- short Archive controller needs Xenix 2.3
	- Bell Tech (Everex?) type controller will work with SCO if
	  drive is re-jumpered from #3 to #1
	- Archive controller will work fine with drive supplied by BTI
	  (Wangtek)
	- on the 20Mhz 386 I playing on there was no significant difference
	  in performance for the Archive or BTI controllers using SCO
	  Drivers

The bottom line - I'm continuing to use the Bell Tech Controller simply
because to use the Archive Controller would require using 50 pin ribbon
cable, or getting a special cable made to match the DB25 on their end with
the DB?? that Bell Tech uses. But when I get a tower I'll move the cartridge
inside and use the Archive 499R controller because it has a header and my
Bell Tech card doesn't.



-- 
Stuart.Lynne at wimsey.bc.ca {ubc-cs,uunet}!van-bc!sl     Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532