karl@cygnet.CYGNETSYSTEMS (Karl Danz) (01/28/85)
[] 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