masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Masaru Sugai) (06/20/91)
In article <1991Jun19.100002.26682@NCoast.ORG> lesle@NCoast.ORG (David A. Lesle) writes: >Is there any way to program the A3070 tape drive to read tapes >of lower density than 150M? I have several tape cartridges with >tar files from a Sun system circa 1989 that I would like to read. > >I remember that the Sun had several different devices depending >on which density you wanted to read, but I can't find anything >like that in the UNIX documentation. I'd like to do this under >either AmigaDOS or UNIX so any help would be appreciated. This is a sort of gripe on A3070. I bought mine in April, but it turned out that there is few programming info in the accompanied booklet. I asked around on several nets when I came across several problems on trying to use it as a tape drive for other platform including AmigaDOS. I'm partly successful to use it as 150MB streamer, but I'm not sure if I really take advantage of maximum performance. Some guy suggested me a possibility of undocumented dip switches and vendor specific SCSI commands, but I couldn't find anybody who had experience with CALIPER 150. I have no idea who OEMs this drive even though it's made in Japan! If AmigaUX is to be release as a software product and A3070 is the only officially supported tape driver, many users would be no choice but to buy this drive, even though there are no support for AmigaDOS. Methinks the advantage of Amiga is powerful hardware and rich PDS, and it's quite wasteful for both us and CBM not to release programming info at large. Or should I have opted for WangTek or Archive ? But I might have hassle in case of AmigaUX as well. I would like additional doc for my A3070 too. >David Lesle uucp: ncoast!lesle -- -- Masaru Sugai:Use disclaimer. CIS 72050,2141:NeXT + A3000 = money-eater NEC Corporation:sugai@ccs.mt.nec.co.jp DORMANT:hardwired logic,machine language MIT R.Affiliate:masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu: "Silicon on Sapphire" by CLASH
mscritsm@isis.cs.du.edu (Milton Scritsmier) (06/20/91)
In article <1991Jun19.171335.4227@news.media.mit.edu> masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Masaru Sugai) writes: > > This is a sort of gripe on A3070. I bought mine in April, but it turned >out that there is few programming info in the accompanied booklet. I asked >around on several nets when I came across several problems on trying to >use it as a tape drive for other platform including AmigaDOS. I'm partly >successful to use it as 150MB streamer, but I'm not sure if I really take >advantage of maximum performance. > > Some guy suggested me a possibility of undocumented dip switches and >vendor specific SCSI commands, but I couldn't find anybody who had >experience with CALIPER 150. I have no idea who OEMs this drive even though >it's made in Japan! If the Caliper drive is truly QIC 150 compatible, it should be able to read lower density QIC tapes automatically. The drive itself does this by various tricks. The only problem might be with the mode select command, which probably defaults to the QIC 150 density on power-up. Even though the drive can read the tape, it may not pass the data along until you choose the proper density via the mode select command. Unfortunately, I don't have my SCSI spec handy, so I can't tell you what the correct value would be. Also, I believe Caliper is owned by Sanyo or Sankyo or a company of a similar name in Japan.
jmpor@dynam.UUCP (Jean-MarcPorchet) (06/21/91)
In article <1991Jun19.171335.4227@news.media.mit.edu>, Masaru Sugai writes: > > If AmigaUX is to be release as a software product and A3070 is the only > officially supported tape driver, many users would be no choice but to buy > this drive, even though there are no support for AmigaDOS. Methinks the > advantage of Amiga is powerful hardware and rich PDS, and it's quite > wasteful for both us and CBM not to release programming info at large. > Or should I have opted for WangTek or Archive ? But I might have hassle > in case of AmigaUX as well. I would like additional doc for my A3070 too. I think you can use the drive you want at long it can read and write QIC 150 cartridges. At the moment I use a WANGTEK 5150ES and it work perfectly well under unix and AmigaDos. Under Amigados I use the TapeStore Program from GVP, latest version work on the A3000 and with the A3070. > > >David Lesle uucp: ncoast!lesle > -- > -- Masaru Sugai:Use disclaimer. CIS 72050,2141:NeXT + A3000 = money-eater > NEC Corporation:sugai@ccs.mt.nec.co.jp DORMANT:hardwired logic,machine language > MIT R.Affiliate:masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu: "Silicon on Sapphire" by CLASH -- PS : forget my bad English, I'm still trying to learn it ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean-Marc PORCHET Phone : 41 22-754-1733 301 Mandement Road ORG : DYNAMIC COMPUTER 1281 RUSSIN SWITZERLAND UUCP : ...{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmswi!dynam!jmpor or try mcsun!cbmswi!dynam!jmpor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Simple things should be simple & complex things should be possible' Alan key
sysop@insider.zer.sub.org (06/23/91)
(Hey guys, how 'bout moving this to an -OFFICIAL- CSA-group ?) > If AmigaUX is to be release as a software product and A3070 is the only > officially supported tape driver, many users would be no choice but to buy > this drive, even though there are no support for AmigaDOS. Methinks the As the Amiga will take almost ANY `normal' SCSI-Streamer, there is no such thing as `only supported Streamer'. I have the case from one company, the soft from another and put a nomale Cypher streamer in it, and it works... > Or should I have opted for WangTek or Archive ? But I might have hassle > in case of AmigaUX as well. I would like additional doc for my A3070 too. Hey, these things (at least speaking for Wangtek, Caliper and Cypher) DO have akind of a standard built in... your software won't care if it's one or the other... Amiga - What else ? | Garry Glendown The Insider HST/V32b +49 (0)6621-77923 // | UUCP: cbmvax!cbmger!insider!garry Fido: 2:243/43.999 // | garry@fulmin.rhoen.sub.org Garry@DGIHRZ01.BITNET \X/ | Zerberus: SYSOP@INSIDER.ZER **>>> MPoint v1.6 <<<** (C)1991 M.Aberle