Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!boulder!stan!chris!taylor From: taylor@chris.Solbourne.COM (Dick Taylor) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: Helical scan tape vs QIC Keywords: QIC DAT 8mm Message-ID: <1990Dec11.005305.22292@Solbourne.COM> Date: 11 Dec 90 00:53:05 GMT References: <363@adphdw20.UUCP> <1990Dec4.194504.28493@com50.c2s.mn.org> Sender: news@Solbourne.COM Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc. Lines: 45 In article <1990Dec4.194504.28493@com50.c2s.mn.org> chris@com50.c2s.mn.org (Chris Johnson) writes: >In article <363@adphdw20.UUCP> dtb@adpplz.UUCP (Tom Beach) writes: >>There has been a fair amount of discussion here recently over the relative >>merits of the competing helical scan technologies. >> >>There will be 1.3 GB QIC drives available for evaluation within the >>next 3 months. That matches today's DAT drives with, in my opinion, >>greater future capacity enhancements than DAT. >> >>I'm not sure that QIC isn't being written off too quickly in this forum. > ... > >On the other hand, if someone could provide a 6+ gigabyte QIC tape cartridge >with 250 kilobyte per second average data transfer time, and sell the tapes >themselves for around $10-12 each, we will buy lots of them. > This would make it barely competitive with the 5GB 8mm drive, except for the transfer rate (which is about 500 Kb/s for the 5GB drive, or so I hear). With 5 1/4" disk capacities headed for 2GB in the very near future, and with disk transfer rates already over 3 MB/s and climbing, I don't have a lot of hope for a device whose transfer rate is only 0.25 Mb/s. And a medium cost that's still 2x per megabyte (to be generous) doesn't sound to me like it will be tremendously popular. I'm not writing off QIC immediately -- it seems to me that it's in the same state as 1/2" tape was a few years ago, in that the drives are ubiquitous and this installed base will keep the technology going a while. On the other hand, I don't see a lot of systems with large (> 150 MB) QIC drives in them, and I do see a lot of 8mm drives out there. As far as future tape technology, I'm a little bit of a skeptic about anything except 8mm videotape and RDAT. Between the two of them, I like the 8mm, because it's fast and huge and has been shipping long enough that Exabyte has most of the bugs out. RDAT is a good bet to get really big when the true 3 1/2" RDAT drives are available -- it's the obvious medium for data interchange for really small systems. >-- > ...Chris Johnson chris@c2s.mn.org ..uunet!bungia!com50!chris > Com Squared Systems, Inc. St. Paul, MN USA +1 612 452 9522 -- Dick Taylor Solbourne Computer, Inc.