mhart@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (hart) (03/15/90)
Does SGI or anyone with SGI gear have recommendations for third-party 8MM tape drives for backups? It appears that SGI has them for the "tower" systems (like 4D/240), but not in an external form factor to use as plug in SCSI add-ons for (in my case ) PI's. Is it true that Exabyte is the sole source for 8MM transports in North America, regardless of the vendor name on the box?? If the above is true, there should be little if any compatibility problems; right???? I'd like names and numbers of vendors, along with comments, recommendations and flames. If netters could reply via E-mail, I'll summarize and post. For replies here, read it yourself!!! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In a related matter, we took an Archive 150MB QIC drive from MaxStream for the Mac (Identical in all observable ways to the SGI external 150MB tape from Archive), hooked it up to a PI, and, while it kinda worked, it was certainly not reliable enough to use for anything valuable. Any ideas on why this is/was??? ================================================= Michael G. Hart David Taylor Research Center Bethesda, MD ph 202-227-1979 mhart @dtrc.dt.navy.mil ------------------------------------------------- Secretary Cheney speaks for the Navy, not me! -------------------------------------------------
olson@anchor.sgi.com (Dave Olson) (03/16/90)
In article <1290@nems.dt.navy.mil> mhart@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (hart) writes: >Is it true that Exabyte is the sole source for 8MM transports in North >America, regardless of the vendor name on the box?? YES. >If the above is true, there should be little if any compatibility problems; >right???? NO. Exabyte produces different proms for different vendors, for assorted reasons. Some will work with our system, some won't. Also, because the same driver is used for all SCSI tape drives, we key off of the vendor name (and where appropriate) product name to decide what kind of special things we can/may do with the drive. Some of the special proms return different inquiry strings, so we may not recognize a drive from a third party vendor. >In a related matter, we took an Archive 150MB QIC drive from MaxStream >for the Mac (Identical in all observable ways to the SGI external 150MB >tape from Archive), hooked it up to a PI, and, while it kinda worked, >it was certainly not reliable enough to use for anything valuable. >Any ideas on why this is/was??? For the same reason an Exabyte might not work. The Mac doesn't quite implement the SCSI standard 'correctly', and the vendors often make special proms, and even sometimes PC board changes, when selling into the MAC market. One of the reasons we charge more than third party vendors for our peripherals is that we end up doing a fair amount of testing and working with vendors to try to ensure that the periphals do, in fact, work with our systems, both at the hardware and software level. Dave Olson Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
andrew@alice.UUCP (Andrew Hume) (03/16/90)
i am only 99.5% sure of this but i believe it. Sony is the sole source of 8mm drives. Until somewhat recently, they shipped drives to Exabyte, who then modified the electronics and then sold it to you. Sony has since formed a 8mm data products group, which sells this tweaked drive directly to Exabyte who then resells it to you without further ado (more or less). Last i spoke with Sony people, they had no plans to sell the drivbes to anyone other than Exabyte (i can imagine licensing problems etc.). on the other hand, exabyte drives can be had quite cheaply these days from third parties ($3.5K?), despite the fact that SGI (and MIPS and DEC and ..) charge rather more (they do add value, even if only in FCC stuff).
markb@denali.sgi.com (Mark Bradley) (03/17/90)
In article <10578@alice.UUCP>, andrew@alice.UUCP (Andrew Hume) writes: > > > i am only 99.5% sure of this but i believe it. > > Sony is the sole source of 8mm drives. Until somewhat recently, > they shipped drives to Exabyte, who then modified the electronics > and then sold it to you. Sony has since formed a 8mm data products > group, which sells this tweaked drive directly to Exabyte who then > resells it to you without further ado (more or less). Last i spoke > with Sony people, they had no plans to sell the drivbes to anyone other > than Exabyte (i can imagine licensing problems etc.). > > on the other hand, exabyte drives can be had quite cheaply these days > from third parties ($3.5K?), despite the fact that SGI (and MIPS and DEC and ..) > charge rather more (they do add value, even if only in FCC stuff). The mechanism is made by Sony. The drive is made by Exabyte. They have a *very* exclusive right to sell and mfr. these. markb -- Mark Bradley "Faster, faster, until the thrill of I/O Subsystems speed overcomes the fear of death." Silicon Graphics Computer Systems Mountain View, CA 94039-7311 ---Hunter S. Thompson Disclaimer: Anything I say is my opinion. If someone else wants to use it, it will cost...
ronf@tesla.esd.sgi.com (Ron Fischer) (03/17/90)
I'm just a software type and am curious. How different are the 8mm data drives from video drives? ronf();