Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!dptg!ulysses!andante!alice!andrew
From: andrew@alice.UUCP (Andrew Hume)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: 8MM Drives
Summary: there is one source.
Message-ID: <10578@alice.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 90 04:29:37 GMT
References: <1290@nems.dt.navy.mil>
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 15



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).