Emulex TC7000 -- "rewind hang"

[Karl Danz]

[]

There have been at least two postings regarding a problem with
Emulex's TC7000 tape controller.  When rewinding, the VAX "hangs"
-- nothing else happens until the tape gets back to Load Point.

There is a get around, which is to always use the "no-rewind-
on-close" tape device, and then issue the separate command:

	mt -f <tapename> rewoffl

This is inconvenient -- the tape unloads instead of going back to
Load Point -- but it sure beats stopping all processing for 4 or
5 minutes while the tape rewinds!

The fix is to get a PROM upgrade from Emulex.  We went from Rev. C
to Rev. F this weekend and that solved the problem.  I don't know 
anything about other revision levels.  I also don't know why Emulex
ships cards with back level PROMs... this was a new card for us.

The TC7000 sits on the MASSBUS and controls a TU77 (or compatible)
tape drive.  We have a Cipher M990, but people have had the same
problem with the CDC 92185.

We still have two outstanding problems:

	1. The Cipher does not stream at 6250 BPI.
	2. We cannot select the density with software (i.e.
	   varying the minor device number has no effect).

I have little hope of solving #1, but #2 would be real nice.
Any help would be appreciated.
-- 

					Karl Danz
					Cygnet Systems
					...!hplabs!cygnet!karl