Help on tape drive interoperability/reliability

[Jim Deitch]

In article <1712 at chinacat.Unicom.COM> chip at chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) writes:
>In article <1990Nov20.000121.23207 at ico.isc.com>
>	rcd at ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>>rajs at hpindda.cup.hp.com (Rajeev Seth) writes:
>>> Everex tech support told me that it is not good enough that two different
>>> tape drives/machines read/write QIC-24 because the controller card for the
>>> drive has some security PAL chip [...]
>>Not only do we not find it to be true with other brand drives; I barely
>>find it believable.
>
>Of course not.  If they did that, it wouldn't be QIC-24 anymore!
>
>I think the confusion might be that Bell Tech used to OEM somebody's tape
>controller card (Everex?) and there was a PAL which prevented the adapters
>and drives from being interchanged.
>
>But as far as media compatibility, if a drive can write QIC-24, then it
>can swap tapes with a drive which can read QIC-24.  If it can't, then one
>of the two is broke.
>
>Three cheers for standards.

I don't think the security pal has to do with drive swaps.  In the DOS
software field, there is a big tape drive software company that has a
pal on the cards that their software checks for.  If the bytes it is
looking for don't exist then the software will not work.  Stops you
from taking the software over to another machine and using it with an
"inferior" drive/controller combination.

Jim
  
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