TU80 questions

[pg at mhtsa.UUCP]

The TU80 is a nice, relatively cheap drive (I think, half the price
of a TS11).  It is TS11 software compatible, and mechanically 1000
times simpler.  It is a streaming tape drive, which means the logic
makes up for the lack of mechanicals at the cost of speed.  I have
only been able to get it to stream once, but my normal use of tape
drives does not require speeds in excess of the non-streaming 25ips.
In general, special software would have to be written to make the
thing hum at 100ips in streaming mode.  I'm sure you will not need
the speed unless you are going to duplicate tapes or go into the
banking business.  On anything less than a 780 it doesn't pay to
get anything more expensive and on a 780 you can always enhance
the tape pragrams/driver to keep the thing busy.  No bugs found
yet, but I have only had it for a month.
P.S. I am using a UNIX* System V+ kernel with the standard TS11
driver.
				Paul Glick
				Bell Labs
				...mhtsa!pg

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