Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!sgi!shinobu!odin!anchor!olson From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: sync scsi tape drives (non 1/2 inch) Message-ID: <1991Feb16.061334.23348@odin.corp.sgi.com> Date: 16 Feb 91 06:13:34 GMT References: Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News) Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Mountain View, CA Lines: 21 In grl@brb.dmt.csiro.au (Greg Lehmann) writes: | 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 easts and in the performance | compared to non-sync operation. Most of your questions were addressed by other responses, but none gave names. The ARDAT (Archvie) DAT drives support sync mode, except for the very early units. The primary advantage is not in sustained transfer rate (which is less than 183Kb/sec), but in overall SCSI bus utilization. This can be important if you have a number of SCSI devices on the bus, in that disks, etc. get more of the bus bandwidth. -- Dave Olson Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.