Info needed on ExaByte and comparable systems

[Mike Lee]

In sunspots v7n205 Cris Fuhrman writes:

> 1)  VHS tape vs 8mm tape systems:  How do they compare?  We only have 
>     info on one VHS system (GIGA Store).  It seems to have a lower 
>     error rate (1 bit/10^23 vs the 1 bit/10^24 of the 8mm systems).  
>     The data transfer rate is slower in this VHS system (about 2 times 
>     slower than 8mm systems).  It holds about .5 Gb more than the 
>     8mm's.

Not to be nit-picky, but (to be nit-picky) I should point out that an
error rate of 1/10^23 is HIGHER than 1/10^24.  I speculate that these
error rates are more dependent on recording speed than tape format anyway,
and are both so low that they might as well be identical.

More pertinently, one vendor you did not mention is Alpha-Micro, which has
a VHS backup device.  It is priced extremely low (less than $1000) and
seems to be aimed at the PC market.  If you have any 386i's it may be
worth a look.  I have never used any of Alpha-Micro's products, so I
cannot vouch for their quality.

The rest of Cris's post was enlightening with respect to hi-capacity
backup and I hope not too many other people flame on his math to the
exclusion of helping him select a high-quality/low-cost backup device.

Mike Lee ("Grob, nie blitsward?")
Ontek Corporation

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