anthony@nereid.sal.ists.ca (David M. Anthony) (02/04/90)
Recently I posted this question to the net:
# Could someone please confirm or deny the fact that Exabyte 8mm tape
# backup systems *do not* work properly under SunOS 4.0.3. I'm in the
# position of having to buy a plug-and-play setup from Delta Microsystems
# for ~$6000 CDN but would much rather buy an Exabyte for ~$3500 CDN and
# use Sun's driver. Any suggestions welcome.
The overwhelming response was that Exabytes *do* work under SunOS 4.0.3
but not in all cases. Some of the responses were,
o Does not work with Sun SCSI-2 (sc) driver under 4.0 or 4.0.1, but 4.0.3
may have fixed the problem.
o Write errors may occur with Sun's SCSI-3 (si) driver. Sun may have a
patch available for these problems.
o Runs fine on Sun 3/50 or 3/60 running 4.0.3 with Sun's drivers.
o Packaged drive and driver from Delta Microsystems, Contemporary
Cybernetics and Boxhill Systems works with no problems.
o Third party drivers such as those provided by Delta Microsystems and
Apunix (San Deigo) allow greater flexibility using the tar/dump utilities.
o Does not work with 4.0.3c (SS1's) SCSI driver but Sun has a patch that
fixes the problem.
The bottom line for me is that I think I will avoid Sun's drivers and
either go with Delta Microsystem's package or buy an Exabyte and look
around for a driver (Apunix received favourable reviews).
Thanks to all who responded so quickly to my query and in particular, I
would like to thank,
debrunne@uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu (Chris Debrunner)
dmc%cam.sri.com@Warbucks.AI.SRI.COM (David Carter)
kjv@tampella.fi (V{{r{nen Kari)
milt%xlab@uunet.uu.net (Milt Ratcliff)
glen@rockvax.rockefeller.edu (Glen L. Gunsalus)
raob@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Richard Oxbrow)
pgf@space.mit.edu (Peter G. Ford)
david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (David Robinson)
tonyr@tekadg.adg.tek.com (Tony Rick)
ekrell@ulysses.att.com (Eduardo Krell)
David M. Anthony
anthony@nereid.sal.ists.ca
Space Astrophysics Laboratory
Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science