Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!blake!milton!seymour
From: seymour@milton.acs.washington.edu (Richard Seymour)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Re: DAT vs. 8mm
Message-ID: <2757@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 90 18:21:13 GMT
References: <28719@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: seymour@milton.acs.washington.edu (Richard Seymour)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 14


 the MAJOR difference is that DAT tapes are block-addressable
(like old DECtapes)..  so you can random-access anywhere on the
1.2 Gbytes within about 40 seconds.

In our application that's very attractive -- but not currently
supported by normal DEC utilities (except on PDP-8's, PDP 11/20's,
etc. :-)

but an 8mm drive system which will use fast-seek can get to the 1.2
Gbyte marker in only 6 minutes.  
which is blindly fast compared to the load/shuffle time of a 6250bpi
9-track drive -- even if you mount the correct reel first!
--dick