Very Computer

by **Scott Mill** » Thu, 07 Jul 1994 05:10:29

Has anyone connected a DEC TK50 tape drive to a Sun?

--
Scott Miller "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"
UF EE Department .
http://www.eel.ufl.edu/~scot "And always smell as nice as possible"

by **wilko bul** » Sat, 09 Jul 1994 16:59:22

>Has anyone connected a DEC TK50 tape drive to a Sun?

Eeek. You are probably trying the impossible. The TK50 has
a proprietary interface (mostly connected to a dedicated
Qbus controller). I think the TK70 came with a SCSI interface,
that might be a better bet (apart from drivers etc).

Wilko
--

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by **Wieland Ecke** » Sat, 09 Jul 1994 21:10:13

>>Has anyone connected a DEC TK50 tape drive to a Sun?
>Eeek. You are probably trying the impossible. The TK50 has
>a proprietary interface (mostly connected to a dedicated
>Qbus controller). [...]
>Wilko

Yes. But you should point out that the TKZ50 is the SCSI version
of the TK50 (using the same media and format). I've heard rumors,
that someone did connect it to a PC using gnu tar on top of ASPI ...

W/
Wieland Eckert, Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Mustererkennung

by **wilko bul** » Sat, 09 Jul 1994 23:30:12

>>>Has anyone connected a DEC TK50 tape drive to a Sun?
>>Eeek. You are probably trying the impossible. The TK50 has
>>a proprietary interface (mostly connected to a dedicated
>>Qbus controller). [...]
>>Wilko
>Yes. But you should point out that the TKZ50 is the SCSI version
>of the TK50 (using the same media and format). I've heard rumors,
>that someone did connect it to a PC using gnu tar on top of ASPI ...

Sure, you are right. But assuming the original question was 'TK50'
my first reply remains valid.

Wilko

--

|/|/ / / /( (_) |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation voice: +3155-432062
fax: +3155-432103 DTN: 829 2062 PO Box 245 - 7300 AE Apeldoorn - The Netherlands

by **ober..** » Sun, 10 Jul 1994 01:55:03

>>Has anyone connected a DEC TK50 tape drive to a Sun?

>Eeek. You are probably trying the impossible. The TK50 has
>a proprietary interface (mostly connected to a dedicated
>Qbus controller). I think the TK70 came with a SCSI interface,
>that might be a better bet (apart from drivers etc).

Both the TK50 and TK70 use a proprietarty interface in their standard
configurations, but both are available in SCSI as well. The SCSI drives are
TKZx0 drives. (Or is that TZKx0??)

R. Kevin Oberman
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
National Energy Research Supercomputer Center (NERSC)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

by **Don Stok** » Mon, 11 Jul 1994 15:15:21

> Both the TK50 and TK70 use a proprietarty interface in their standard
> configurations, but both are available in SCSI as well. The SCSI drives are
> TKZx0 drives. (Or is that TZKx0??)

TK50-Z and TZ30. TK50-Z is the same hardware as the uVAX 2000 TK50 drive
(also called the TK50-Z) with a ROM change to make it (nearly) real SCSI.
I believe this is a standard TK50 drive with a SCSI controller in the same
box but I haven't pulled one apart to look.

TZ30 is a half-height drive, different mechanism, with built-in SCSI
interface. It "feels" faster than a "real" TK50, but I haven't put them
side by side to see.

I'm not sure if there are SCSI TK70 versions around.

--
Don Stokes, Network Manager, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

by **l..** » Tue, 12 Jul 1994 21:56:24

|>
|>I'm not sure if there are SCSI TK70 versions around.
|>

There are 3. I have one of them. :-)

Actually, the TK70 <-> SCSI project was canceled. The 3 that I refer
to are the prototype boards that were made to support the software
development. There is no software in existance for the boards so they
are quite useless.