Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!amdahl!fai!ronc From: ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent Subject: Re: 2 Gb cartridge tape drive Message-ID: <1180@fai.UUCP> Date: 6 Dec 88 17:15:39 GMT References: <2400029@kailand> Reply-To: ronc@fai.fai.com (Ronald O. Christian) Organization: Fujitsu America, Inc. Lines: 29 In article <2400029@kailand> pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM writes: >Actually, I was wondering if any gurus out there could tell me: > - how difficult is device driver software to work on? > - can anybody relate any experiance with this particular device? > - is Sequent's SCSI (ANSI X3.T9.2) capable of supporting this drive? > - do you have any info on connecting SCSI peripherals to Sequents? We have an Exabyte on order. We're going to experiment with it on our Symmetry 81. If there's people out there that are interested in the results, I can post our experiences. If memory serves, Sequent is evaluating the Exabyte even as I write. (Source: The last SURF meeting.) As I recall, the issue was not the interface between the Exabyte and the Symmetry, but that the Exabyte had reliability problems. I guess we'll find out. We're presently buying over $9000 worth of 9 track tapes a year for daily incrementals, and *that* has *got* to *stop*! According to the Exabyte rep, the drive looks like an Archive streamer (with a very looooong tape) to the SCSI controller. He said that at least on the Sun, the same driver works for the Archive and th Exabyte. We are betting that the Archive driver on the Symmetry will also talk to the Exabyte. Ron -- Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calif.) {amdahl, pyramid, sun, unisoft, uunet}!fai!ronc -or- ronc@fai.com