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From: richard@vajra.uucp (Richard Wood)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.arch
Subject: Re: Whither the TK70 (was DECstation 3100 info.)
Message-ID: <366@granite.dec.com>
Date: 31 Jan 89 19:39:52 GMT
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In article <8506@dasys1.UUCP> treed@dasys1.UUCP (Timothy Reed) writes:
>What ever happened to the TK70 cartridge drives?  The things can store
>almost 400 MB - 300 MB more than the TK50 that is available for the
>3100.  The TK70 is not even an option with the 3100.  The (mostly)
>salespeople I spoke with at the 3100 unveiling danced around this
>question.  What's the real story - I've had no more problems with my 2
>TK70s than I've had with any other tape drive.  Fred - you there?

Is it okay if I try to answer?  :-)  When a company introduces a new
product, it's very unlikely that all possible options are available at
introduction.  The TK70 is an prime example.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, we don't expect a tape to be
configured in with a low-end workstation such as the ds3100 or vs3100.
These systems normally reside in networks where it makes sense to share
resources as much as possible to keep costs down.  With network
installation and backup, a tape unit should be an unnecessary expense.
So we put our effort initially into the devices that will be needed,
such as the disk drives.  If we waited to qualify support for additional
peripherals, we would have been forced to spread our resources thinner,
thus delaying introduction.

DEC is now very firmly on the SCSI bandwagon: not only the ds3100, but
also the vs3100 and vs3520/3540 use SCSI for mass storage.  Eventually
you'll be seeing many more DEC-supplied SCSI devices.  TK70s would be
likely candidates for inclusion in the list.

BTW - the rated capacity of the TK70 is 296MB, while the TK50 is 95MB.
If you're getting 400MB out of the prior, congratulations.

-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does it need saying that I'm not speaking as an official representative of DEC?
===============================================================================
Richard Wood  !  U. S. Worksystems, Palo Alto  !  Digital Equipment Corporation