paul@frcs.UUCP (Paul Nash) (11/16/90)
Does anyone out there have _either_ a Minix (or other *ix) device driver for an Archive SC499 tape controller, or technical specs of the controller. I have an Archive FasTape drive & SC499 controllers on my Unix and DOS boxes, and plan to slap a third controller into my Minix machine. However, I need a driver. I am prepared to write one if I must, but am lazy. I would appreciate any info about Minix tape drivers, (yes, I know -- RTFM), Unix tape drivers and the Archive controller in particular. If I end up writing a driver, it will be released to the net (to comp.os.minix). Many thanks -- ----x------x------x------x------x------x------x------x------x---- In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow
curci@ds1.scri.fsu.edu (Raymond Curci) (11/20/90)
In article <191@frcs.UUCP> paul@frcs.UUCP (Paul Nash) writes: >Does anyone out there have _either_ a Minix (or other *ix) device >driver for an Archive SC499 tape controller, or technical specs >of the controller. > >I have an Archive FasTape drive & SC499 controllers on my Unix >and DOS boxes, and plan to slap a third controller into my Minix >machine. However, I need a driver. I am prepared to write one >if I must, but am lazy. I would appreciate any info about Minix >tape drivers, (yes, I know -- RTFM), Unix tape drivers and the >Archive controller in particular. If I end up writing a driver, >it will be released to the net (to comp.os.minix). > >Many thanks > >-- >----x------x------x------x------x------x------x------x------x---- >In much wisdom is much grief: >and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow The Santa Cruz Operation and Archive have jointly developed a device driver for the FasTape SC499, SC499r, and VP series tape drives about 3 years ago for use under the Xenix operating system. I have used it under the 386 version of Xenix v2.3.2. At the time, Archive included the driver on a diskette packaged with their tape drives and SCO made it available free of charge. It is my understanding that newer verisons of Xenix are packaged with the driver. I don't know how much success you will have trying to get the source code for this driver. This 1/4" tape drive is convenient for backup and interchange of data. You can create QIC-11 and QIC-24 format TAR tapes and exchange data with other UNIX systems such as Sun3 and Sun4. A few years ago, Archive provided me with technical details for their SC499 controller upon request. I spoke with Dale Spindlar at (714) 955-2335 at Archive. Since Archive was recently purchased by Maynard, I am not sure if things have been reorganized. Good Luck! Raymond Curci Institute of Molecular Biophysics Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL curci@mailer.scri.fsu.edu -- Raymond Curci INTERNET: curci@mailer.scri.fsu.edu Systems Engineer UUCP: ...!uunet!mailer.scri.fsu.edu!curci Institute of Molecular Biophysics SPAN: 46453::curci -or- SCRI1::curci Florida State University BITNET: curci@fsu.bitnet