QIC-nn tape formats -- standardization???

[Evan Leibovitch]

In article <2734 at sixhub.UUCP> davidsen at sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:

>  I can tell you that a 60MB QIC-24 format tape seems to be the best bet
>for interchange. It can be written by Sun as rst8 (*not* rst0), and is
>supported by Xenix and most 3.2 and V.4 drives of 60, 125, and 150MB
>rating. I've written tapes on my Wangtek 60MB and read them on Sun,
>Wantek 5125 with Scorpion (I think controller), SCSI Wangtek under V.4,
>etc.

Just watch out for the tradeoffs. A 60MB QIC-24 can be considered the
"universal writer", because it can write tapes readable by most systems
that take that size cartridge. However, it cannot read tapes made by an
increasing number of systems with 125MB or 150MB tape units. On the
other hand, a QIC-150 unit should be able to READ anything, even though
what it writes can only be read by other 150s.

Which brings me to my own two questions, one of which is related:

a) Does there exist anywhere, a 125MB or 150MB QIC tape drive (controller,
   and associated UNIX driver) that can *WRITE* 60MB tapes as weel as
   read them?

b) Why does it seem like SCSI QIC tape drives are universally more
   expensive than Wangtek-based subsystems *including the controller*?
   While I've been shopping and listening to the experiences of others,
   I've heard that Archive SCSI QIC drives are noticably more expensive
   than their Wanktek counterparts, and are also porrly documented. Two
   people I know who bought Archive SCSI tapes were not even given
   instructions on how to set the drives' SCSI address or where the
   terminating resistors are! (Yes, usually these things seem obvious,
   but I don't like assuming how to do the setup in lieu of real docs.)

-- 
  Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
       evan at telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
In PEI they don't allow abortions, yet they're building one - the GST centre