mmengel@cuuxb.ATT.COM (~XT4103000~Marc Mengel~C25~G25~6184~) (08/23/88)
Several months ago I asked for cartridge tape format info, and promised to summarize same to the net. Here is the information I have recieved to date. Thanks for this info go to: ihnp4!iconsys!bryan (Bryan J. Cardoza) andrew.cmu.edu!mw3s+ (Martin Weiss) QIC stands for "Quarter Inch Committee". I am not sure whether QIC is an Accredited Standards Committee or not. I refer you to an article by W.L. Rosh in PC Magazine, 6/23/87 v.6 # 12. QIC-02 Host interface standard. QIC-104 Host interface standard (SCSI). QIC-36 Basic tape drive interface standard for attaching streaming tape drives to controllers. Some of the pin definitions for the modified QIC-36 (a.k.a. QIC-36/QIC-120) are as follows: PIN NAME TO FUNCTION --- ----- ------ -------------------------------------- 02 GO- Drive Go control for capstan servo 04 REV- Drive Direction control for capstan servo 06 TR3- Drive Track select bit 3 08 TR2- Drive Track select bit 2 10 TR1- Drive Track select bit 1 12 TR0- Drive Track select bit 0 14 RST- Drive Reset 16-20 Not Used. 22 DS0- Drive Drive 0 select control 24 HC- Drive Select operation with alternate type tape 26 RDP- Ctrlr Read pulse output 28 UTH- Ctrlr Upper tape position code 30 LTH- Ctrlr Lower tape position code 32 SLD- Ctrlr Response from drive when selected 34 CIN- Ctrlr Cartridge in place 36 USF- Ctrlr Write enabled 38 TCH- Ctrlr Capstan tachometer pulses 40 WDA- Drive Write data signal 42 WDA+ Drive Inverse write data signal 44 THD- Drive Threshold--qualifying read amplitude 46 HSD- Drive High Speed--select 90ips 48 WEN- Drive Write enable control 50 EEN- Drive Erase enable control All odd pins are signal returns and are connected to signal ground at the drive. QIC-59 Another controller->drive signal interface standard. QIC-11 Recording format. QIC-24 Recording format: 9 tracks with a typical track width of .0135" Density is 8000 bpi. Typical capacity is 60 megabytes with 6.6 megabytes per track. QIC-120 Recording format: 15 tracks with a typical track width of .0065" Density is 10000 bpi (NRZI Recording Mode). Typical capacity is 120 megabytes, with approximately 8+ megabytes per track. ANSI X3B5/85-138 This is the "standard" DC600A used in most QIC tape drives using the QIC-24 recording format. The tape is a 4" x 6" data recording cartridge with 600 feet of quarter-inch tape. The tape is wound on two coplanar hubs. The hubs are driven by an internal drive belt which is coupled by an internal belt capstan. QIC40 20 tracks over the width of the tape, each containing 2Mbyte of data. Each track consists of 68 segments of 29 sectors, each containing 1024bytes. FAT lists the bad sectors. Recording done using modified FM - "double density" at 10Kbits/inch. Drives run at 25 or 50 ips. QIC100 12-24 tracks. has less stringent compliance requirements than QIC40. Manufacturers: QIC24: Wangtek Tandberg Caliper QIC40: Archive Corp.:Costa Mesa CA:714/641-0279 Mountain Computer:Scotts Valley CA:800/458-0300 QIC100: Advanced Digital Information Corp.:Redmond WA:800/336-1233 Tallgrass Technologies:Overland Park KS:800/228-3475 QIC120: Wangtek Tandberg Caliper