Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!ig!ames!sun-barr!newstop!sun!peregrine!falk
From: falk@peregrine.Sun.COM (Ed Falk)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Exabyte (8mm) versus DAT (4mm)
Message-ID: <138710@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 11 Jul 90 01:58:21 GMT
References: <9007061713.AA01816@stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV> <1881@proa.SV.DG.COM>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 37

In article <1881@proa.SV.DG.COM> gary@proa.SV.DG.COM () writes:
>In article <9007061713.AA01816@stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV> de5@ornl.gov (Dave Sill) writes:
>>DEC seems to be pushing DAT's, and argues that they're inherently
>>better since they were designed to record digital data, whereas 8mm is
>>an analog video format.
>
>Why wasn't this sent to rec.humor.funny?  This is the funniest thing I've
>seen on the net this year.  Did someone actually say that?
>
>Digital Audio Tape was designed to record SOUND.
>
>But in any event - both use magnetic media to record flux changes based
>on whatever modulates them - in this case, it's your data.  Who gives
>a Rat's A** what the technology is used for elsewhere?

It's not totally irrational.  Tapes intended for different recording
technologies often have different characteristics.  In fact, in the
audio world, tapes intended for the *same* recording technology often
have different characteristics.

It's not unreasonable to assume that video tapes, which are meant to
have a small head flying by at an acute angle at a high speed,
recording a video signal might not perform very well when given digital
data.  (To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea what the heads
in an Exabyte drive look like).

However, I can say from personal experience that the 8mm Exabyte
backups I do (level 0 dumps of an entire lab onto one tape, wow)
have always been entirely satisfactory.


Disclaimer: I speak as an end-user ONLY.  I don't speak for Sun.

	-ed falk, sun microsystems -- sun!falk, falk@sun.com
	"What are politicians going to tell people when the
	Constitution is gone and we still have a drug problem?"
			-- William Simpson, A.C.L.U.