rsm@math.arizona.edu (Robert S. Maier) (09/19/89)
I'm looking for a standalone 1/4-inch tape drive with a SCSI
interface. I'm buying a Data General workstation with a 50-pin SCSI
port, and I'd like to be able to plug the tape drive into it.
Unfortunately standalone 1/4-inch SCSI tape drives seem pretty rare.
(I'd like the tape unit to handle 60 Meg tape cartridges and use
Sun-compatible QIC-24 format, by the way.) Far more common are
shoebox units containing both a SCSI tape and a SCSI disk.
In fact the only vendor I could find wanted over $2K for a standalone
1/4-inch tape unit. That seems pretty high, especially considering
that 8mm Exabyte tape drives, handling up to 2200 Meg, can be bought
for as little as $4K!
Can anyone recommend a vendor of less expensive 1/4-inch SCSI tape
drives? I'd go with the Exabyte, but it's beyond my means..
--
Robert S. Maier | Internet: rsm@math.arizona.edu [128.196.128.99]
Dept. of Math. | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax
Tucson, AZ 85721 | FAX: +1 602 621 8322
U.S.A. | Voice: +1 602 621 6893 / +1 602 621 2617seymour@blake.acs.washington.edu (Richard Seymour) (09/20/89)
In article <RSM.89Sep18200600@amethyst.math.arizona.edu> rsm@math.arizona.edu (Robert S. Maier) writes: >I'm looking for a standalone 1/4-inch tape drive with a SCSI >interface. I'm buying a Data General workstation with a 50-pin SCSI One of our people bought an "Archive Corp". (sold for use with IBM PC's) so its input connector is a "QIC-02 format". It usually comes with an IBM AT interface card. But you throw that away and buy from Emulex an MT-02 interface card. That will interface a QIC-02 to a SCSI system. Thewhole mess cost less than $1000. (all of this poop was painfully extracted from someone who bought one -- he bought his by mail order from CompuSave (they advertise ibn byte) -- (the drive, that is) the controller came from an electronics supplier (like Hamilton Avnet, or Almac, or Arrow....) i apologize for the disjointed nature of the reply, but this all happened three years ago, and he was trying to remember things with no warning... -- dick seymour@uwaphast
buck@siswat.UUCP (A. Lester Buck) (09/24/89)
In article <3686@blake.acs.washington.edu>, seymour@blake.acs.washington.edu (Richard Seymour) writes: > In article <RSM.89Sep18200600@amethyst.math.arizona.edu> rsm@math.arizona.edu (Robert S. Maier) writes: > >I'm looking for a standalone 1/4-inch tape drive with a SCSI > >interface. I'm buying a Data General workstation with a 50-pin SCSI > > One of our people bought an "Archive Corp". (sold for use with IBM PC's) > so its input connector is a "QIC-02 format". > It usually comes with an IBM AT interface card. > But you throw that away and buy from Emulex an MT-02 interface card. > That will interface a QIC-02 to a SCSI system. > > Thewhole mess cost less than $1000. > > -- dick seymour@uwaphast I use the same system, except the Archive drive I have is QIC-36 and the MT-02 is definitely QIC-36 to SCSI. I bought an Archive FastTape 60 standalone unit for about $450 with PC interface card and was able to replace the internal 50 conductor ribbon cable with a longer version. I can now use the PC interface with its custom shielded cable OR a SCSI attachment from the MT-02 by way of the 50 pin QIC-36 cable. (The MT-02 does need power separately, of course.) But why not just buy one of the Archive or Wangtek SCSI units directly? The MT-02 is hardly state-of-the-art now, but still costs ~$400. Another solution is an integrated drive and controller, such as the (old) Cipher 540S, which I bought used for about $500 in Computer Hotline. The 540S uses a custom version of the MT-02 to Cipher proprietary interface, though the SCSI view is (virtually) identical. The 540S's problem is it only takes the DC300XL/P tapes at 40 MB. Using a DC600A leads to drastically reduced head life, according to Cipher. -- A. Lester Buck ...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck