arnold@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Arnold de Leon) (02/15/90)
Sequent is now offering an 8mm solution for the Symmetry. From what I've heard it does not use the SCSI bus on the SCED board but instead uses a controller on the Multibus. Does anyone have experience with it? Are they using a Pertec to SCSI board? If so can it share the same Multibus controller as a 1/2 inch tape? Any information is appreciated. -- Arnold de Leon arnold@jarthur.claremont.edu Computer Science Dept., HMC uunet!jarthur!arnold Claremont, CA 91711 arnold@hmcvax.bitnet
keith@sequoia.UUCP (Keith Pyle) (02/17/90)
We have just ordered an Exabyte for our S81 from Sequent. This is considered a custom item and comes from their custom systems group. The controller is the same as used for a 1/2" tape for the MEU (Model TPU-0000-20). Since we don't have it and Sequent won't set a date for delivery for it or the other items we've ordered, I can't give you much more information now. When we get it in and have some experience, I'll post our impressions here. On the topic of these other items we ordered, anyone have a 24 MB ECC memory expansion card available short term and reasonably priced? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keith Pyle UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!execu!keith Manager, Data Processing Services Dept. Internet: keith@execu.com Execucom Systems Corp. execu!keith@cs.utexas.edu 108 Wild Basin Road keith%execu.uucp@cs.utexas.edu Austin, Texas 78746 Ma Bell: 512-327-7070 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
jr3w+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Davis Raborn) (02/20/90)
We are using a MegaTape 8mm tape (shipped by Sequent) unit on our Symmetry 27. I love the damn thing. It's fast (relative to 9 track). We have it's controller on the multibus along with the 9 track controller. I have plans to eventually move my monthly dumps to 8mm so the two devices would be working together. I'm assuming the controllers will be "smart" enough to work together, which of course is a danagerous assumption due to speed, block size, etc. It has been suggested by Sequent that there shouldn't be a problem here. We'll see. We run automated backups at 3:00 am every weekday. The tapes hold about 2.04 gig, which is fine for us, so far. Everything has been a real plaesure. Some notes: 1. DUMP can't handle the helical scanning, so you get HDUMP with the package. It's just a modified dump, basically, the same parameters. 2. RESTORE works fine. 3. We are working with big density, ie, 3.95 bpi on the drive. 4. The only "problem "I've had has been with MT commands. I get thrown off line alot. The manuals talk about it, but i tried it any way. REWIND and FSF are ok, but BSF causes the problems. However the 8mm is fast enough that it isn't that much of a pain to REWIND and FSF instead of BSF. REWOFFL is ok too. Please realize that I use the term FAST with caution. At first my expectations were let down, but the more I use the drive , the more I love it. The drive does a lot of work. For example, it often retensions itself depending on the command, so that takes a few seconds (a minute??). Also, if EJECT is hit, I believe it retensions itself again. Davis Raborn Carnegie Mellon University Administrative Systems UCC 167 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 work: 412 268 8554
jr3w+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Davis Raborn) (02/21/90)
I made a misprint:
>3. We are working with big density, ie, 3.95 bpi on the drive.
Instead of 3.95 bpi it's 3.95 Mbpi!!!!
Davis Raborn