[comp.sys.next] QIC tape drive questions.

masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Masaru Sugai) (05/07/91)

Hi. I have been playing with QIC 150 drive (Commodore A3070) over weekend,
and I have a couple of questions.

I came across selection timeout errors on reading nearly 100 MB long tar'ed
file. I noticed that st(4) detects all errors while my tape drive changes
its recording direction at the end of the first round trip.  I guess tar(1)
uses tight timeout setting, and my QIC cannot get readied within a given
period. 

(1) Is there any official way to adjust tape drive characteristics such as
timeout and fixed block size ? I was obliged to write a piece of code to
set up proper parameters to rst0.

(2) What is the performance of QIC 150 drive on NeXT in reality ? On writing
tar is slower than PDS tar on Amiga even I set number of blocks to 128. 
It's quite annoying as read transfer rate is very close to number in specs.
Or do I miss anything important ?

I would appreciate any info and advice. Thanks in advance.

PS
 I wonder how many guys could afford GB drives. QIC deserves more attention !
-- 
-- Masaru Sugai:Use disclaimer. CIS 72050,2141:NeXT + A3000 = money-eater
NEC Corporation:sugai@ccs.mt.nec.co.jp DORMANT:hardwired logic,machine language
MIT R.Affiliate:masaru@media-lab.media.mit.edu:  "Silicon on Sapphire" by CLASH