TU 81 Tape Drive, Information Wanted.

[Mike Williams]

DEC have recently announced the TU81 tape drive. Our local prices in Sweden
make this drive about the same price as equivalent non DEC equipment (ie
tape drives with 6250 bpi). I have the data sheet from DEC, but wonder if
anyone knows anything about this drive. Has anyone contemplated writing a 
driver for 4.2, or has any brave soul already done so?

For those who know nothing about this drive I can quote the following info
from DEC's data sheet

Density 6,250 or 1,600
Interface UNIBUS DSA software protocol
R/W speed 75 and 25 ips (steaming); 25 ips (start stop)
Max data transfer rate 468 KB per second
Rewind speed 192 ips

If you have any info, you can give me please send a mail to

mike at erix.UUCP or ...{decvax,philabs}!mcvax!enea!erix!mike