Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!brolga!groucho!grl From: grl@brb.dmt.csiro.au (Greg Lehmann) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: sync scsi tape drives (non 1/2 inch) Summary: Do any DAT or 8mm or 1/4 inch drives support sync transfers? Message-ID: Date: 14 Feb 91 02:22:13 GMT Sender: news@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au Organization: Prentice Computer Centre, The University of Queensland, Australia. Lines: 18 Nntp-Posting-Host: groucho.brb.dmt.csiro.au Does anybody have a DAT or 8mm tape drive that can do synchronous scsi transfers. Apparently most 1/2 inch tape drives support it these days. I am interested in the brand names of such beasts and in the performance compared to non-sync operation. What sort of throughput increase do you get when you start running synchronously? Also is there any improvement with the dreadfully long pauses that occur when you do things like mt -f /dev/rst1 rew or other operations that just cause slowdowns like tar cf /dev/rst1 ~mike ? Finally I still haven't heard a description of synchronous scsi and how it differs from ordinary scsi that satisfies me. Any pointers? TIA -- Greg Lehmann, CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology, Telephone: +61 7 365 3877 c/- Dept. of Mining & Metallurgical Eng., Facsimile: +61 7 365 3711 The University of Queensland, QLD 4072. Internet: grl@brb.dmt.csiro.au