Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!karl
From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: Tape back on SCO - suggestions??
Summary: Cannot agree here -- Archive works fine for us so far
Keywords: sco, tecmar
Message-ID: <3668@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Date: 2 Jul 89 21:10:38 GMT
References: <3789@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <3832@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <85@mdi386.UUCP> <24A22AC7.14780@ateng.com>
Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger)
Followup-To: comp.unix.i386
Distribution: usa
Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL
Lines: 33

In article <24A22AC7.14780@ateng.com> chip@ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
>According to bruce@mdi386.UUCP (Bruce A. McIntyre):
>>The best bargin for the money seems to be the ARCHIVE FASTPE for 60MB of
>>storage for about $600, either Internal or External.
>
>Our experience has been nothing but trouble when an Archive tape is used in
>a fast I/O bus.  Tecmar tapes, on the other hand, work like a champ.
>
>Note that fast CPU's don't necessarily have fast I/O buses.  Check your
>hardware documentation.  Any faster than 6MHz -- maybe 8MHz, maybe -- and
>I would avoid Archive.

I disagree here.

We use Archive Viper drives on systems with bus speeds up to 16 Mhz.  They
seem to work fine; I haven't had any problems with them.

Then again, the systems we sell have each bus (8, 16, 32 bit) settable
individually.  This helps out a great deal, and avoids the problem entirely
-- you simply set the 8-bit bus to whatever the system's boards can handle.
Normally we run the 8-bit bus at 1 wait state; Archive viper's work great
set up like this.

We also get nearly 5MB/minute speed out of them when using decent software
(afio with double-buffering enabled, for example).

The OLDER archive boards (full-length) don't like high bus speeds.  The
newer ones (half-card) haven't had any problems here.

--
Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl)
Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910]
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.		"Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"