Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!umich!pha
From: pha@zippy.eecs.umich.edu (Paul Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re:  cartridge tape on a server
Message-ID: <1142@zippy.eecs.umich.edu>
Date: 12 Sep 88 14:46:08 GMT
References: <8809092026.AA03629@mailgw.cc.umich.edu>
Sender: news@zippy.eecs.umich.edu
Reply-To: pha@zippy.eecs.umich.edu (Paul Anderson)
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept. Ann Arbor
Lines: 18
UUCP-Path: ihnp4!umich!zippy!pha


Two quick comments about cartridge tape drives on Apollos:

1) Pre sr10 can read, but not write cart tapes with a blocking
factor of something other than 1.  In particular, I have read
many Sun tar tapes with a blocking factor of 20.  (Note - some
Sun tapes are low density and can't be read on the high density
drive on the Apollo).

2) At SR10, my DN4000 lets me use my cartridge tape drive without
hogging my node.  I can still use it for normal operations,
such as edit, compile cycles or whatever.  The improvement is
absolutely fantastic, believe me.  I am assuming, but don't yet
know for a fact, that the DN3000 is similar.  I hope to know
in a day or two.

Paul Anderson
CAEN