Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 21:08:19 +0200 (CEST) From: Wilko Bulte <wilko@yedi.iaf.nl> To: karl@Denninger.Net (Karl Denninger) Cc: mjacob@feral.com, darrylo@sr.hp.com, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Question - Onstream SCSI Streamer Message-ID: <199905071908.VAA83160@yedi.iaf.nl> In-Reply-To: <19990507133900.A317@Denninger.Net> from Karl Denninger at "May 7, 1999 1:39: 0 pm"
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As Karl Denninger wrote ... > On Fri, May 07, 1999 at 11:32:15AM -0700, Matthew Jacob wrote: > > > > > If you're feeling brave and lucky, OnStream is selling "new" > > > > > internal Quantum DLT-2000XT's for $649 (15GB capacity, uncompressed ). > > > > > Note that these are "brand new" obsolete drives. You'd better read the > > > > > fine print (especially on warranty, shipping, and "defective products"), > > > > > but check out: > > > > > > > > I would not recommend the XT given the media incompatibilities they've > > > > been known to have. > > > > > > The XTs are fine - but they cannot read or write tapes written on a > > > DLT 4000 or 7000. They can read DLT4000 written tapes iff these are on CompactapeIII or CompacTapeIIIxt tapes. They can't write/read the Compactape IV tapes, these are only for DLT[47]000 drives. > > > second-sourced. As such you're going to get positively raped on the > > > media cost since there is no competition (no Fuji tapes, for example). > > > > > > I had two of these at MCS - they were rock-solid and reliable. However, > > > unless you can reliably source media they're going to be trouble down the > > > road. > > > > I had several at Legato. By mistake an XT tape placed into a 2000 > > destroyed it. The tape I guess, not the drive. > Well, yes. The XT tapes are both thinner and longer than the regular > 2000-series DLT tapes, and the 2000-series drives CANNOT handle the > thinner and longer media. > > DLT in general is *forward* compatible, but not *backward* compatible. Not true, the TZ87 and older drives (yes, the DEC ones, before they sold the tape & disk stuff to Quantum) can even read/write TK50 media aka Compactape II. A whopping 90Mb / cartridge. The DLT2000 is equivalent to a TZ87N (note the N) and can't do TK50 tapes. TZ87 drives are second hand several hunderd $ more expensive than TZ87N. The heads of the TZ87 are speced / tested to much narrower tolerances to be able to do TK50. Some people are really willing to pay top $ to get the genuine TZ87 ;-) > I have NOT tried putting a 2000-XT tape in a DLT-4000 unit, and have > absolutely no idea if that is safe or not. If its not then the drive > is a dead end, which could be bad. Works like a charm and is OK. My TZ88 aka DLT4000 is fed with a diet of Compactape III and IIIxt tapes. > One of the items that makes these new "Onstream" drives so attractive is > the price. $500 for the drive is damn good, and with media about $1/Gb > its quite competitive. The 50G version of the same drive, due out sometime > this second quarter can handle an "extra length" cartridge - but is also > backward compatible for both read an write. > > The Onstreams are also about as fast as a DLT 4000 (but not as fast as the > DLT 7000) in terms of raw I/O bitrate, and their media is less expensive. Ever tried to keep a DLT7000 streaming? Better fix the 64kbyte physio bottleneck before trying. Groeten / Cheers, | / o / / _ Arnhem, The Netherlands - Powered by FreeBSD - |/|/ / / /( (_) Bulte WWW : http://www.tcja.nl http://www.freebsd.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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