Trying to design low level hard disk manipulation program
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From: Tarjei T. Jensen on 12 Oct 2006 16:32 "Charles Richmond" wrote: > The MicroVAX used the crappy TK-50 tape for backup. It was slow, > the cartridges were expensive, and even were difficult to find > sometimes. Who came up with this cartidge tape system in DEC??? All technology has its time. When the TK-50 came it was great. An affordable and reasonably priced tape backup system (combined with the VMS backup software). In 1999, the TK-50 was well past its time. At that time you should have bought a DLT. Probably a DLT-7000 or 8000. Don't remember when the DLT-8000 came. greetings,
From: Brian Inglis on 12 Oct 2006 21:23 On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:32:52 +0200 in alt.folklore.computers, "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei(a)online.no> wrote: >"Charles Richmond" wrote: >> The MicroVAX used the crappy TK-50 tape for backup. It was slow, >> the cartridges were expensive, and even were difficult to find >> sometimes. Who came up with this cartidge tape system in DEC??? > >All technology has its time. When the TK-50 came it was great. An affordable >and reasonably priced tape backup system (combined with the VMS backup >software). In 1999, the TK-50 was well past its time. At that time you >should have bought a DLT. Probably a DLT-7000 or 8000. Don't remember when >the DLT-8000 came. The TK-50 was preceeded by reel-to-reel 6250bpi GCR drives which were much faster and had cheaper media, but DEC was never (AFAIK) able to build one themselves that worked well: the ones they sold that worked well were OEMed (so too might some of the lousy ones have been). -- Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada Brian.Inglis(a)CSi.com (Brian[dot]Inglis{at}SystematicSW[dot]ab[dot]ca) fake address use address above to reply
From: jmfbahciv on 13 Oct 2006 06:56 In article <452ea7f8$1(a)news.broadpark.no>, "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei(a)online.no> wrote: >"Charles Richmond" wrote: >> The MicroVAX used the crappy TK-50 tape for backup. It was slow, >> the cartridges were expensive, and even were difficult to find >> sometimes. Who came up with this cartidge tape system in DEC??? > >All technology has its time. When the TK-50 came it was great. No, it wasn't. We had better. It's predecessor still has no equal w.r.t. greatness. > An affordable >and reasonably priced tape backup system (combined with the VMS backup >software). In 1999, the TK-50 was well past its time. At that time you >should have bought a DLT. Probably a DLT-7000 or 8000. Don't remember when >the DLT-8000 came. Suggestion: go meet a DECtape (the real kind, not the wussy thing that came out later and tried to capitalize on the name). /BAH
From: Carl Lowenstein on 16 Oct 2006 12:13 In article <egnrcd$8qk_003(a)s933.apx1.sbo.ma.dialup.rcn.com>, <jmfbahciv(a)aol.com> wrote: >In article <452ea7f8$1(a)news.broadpark.no>, > "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei(a)online.no> wrote: >>"Charles Richmond" wrote: >>> The MicroVAX used the crappy TK-50 tape for backup. It was slow, >>> the cartridges were expensive, and even were difficult to find >>> sometimes. Who came up with this cartidge tape system in DEC??? >> >>All technology has its time. When the TK-50 came it was great. > >No, it wasn't. We had better. It's predecessor still has no equal w.r.t. >greatness. > >> An affordable >>and reasonably priced tape backup system (combined with the VMS backup >>software). In 1999, the TK-50 was well past its time. At that time you >>should have bought a DLT. Probably a DLT-7000 or 8000. Don't remember when >>the DLT-8000 came. > >Suggestion: go meet a DECtape (the real kind, not the wussy >thing that came out later and tried to capitalize on the name). DECtape was great for its day. Small, rugged, easily carried around. One reel had about the same storage capacity as an 8" floppy disk. The 8" floppy becaue the useful replacement for DECtape as a portable "Sneakernet" medium on my PDP8 and early PDP11 systems. But with the advent of giant 2.5MB RK05 drives I had to start using 9-track tape for backup. I found TK50 acceptable as storage on my first MicroVAX II, since the 95 MB capacity was pretty well matched to the 67MB RD53 disk drive. For realtime data logging, the TK50 was not acceptable because of the excessive delays as the medium reversed direction and switched tracks. Pretty soon a 474MB Eagle drive came along and the TK50 was not so useful. Sneakernet was replaced by Ethernet, and backups migrated to 4mm DDS tape. So yes, TU55/TU56 DECtape had its day. As a backup medium it was overwhelmed by increases in disk capacity. As a personal storage or Sneakernet medium it was replaced by floppy disks, and nowadays by USB memory sticks. carl -- carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego clowenst(a)ucsd.edu
From: Charles Shannon Hendrix on 16 Oct 2006 20:41
["Followup-To:" header set to alt.folklore.computers.] On 2006-10-13, jmfbahciv(a)aol.com <jmfbahciv(a)aol.com> wrote: > In article <452ea7f8$1(a)news.broadpark.no>, > "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei(a)online.no> wrote: >>"Charles Richmond" wrote: >>> The MicroVAX used the crappy TK-50 tape for backup. It was slow, >>> the cartridges were expensive, and even were difficult to find >>> sometimes. Who came up with this cartidge tape system in DEC??? >> >>All technology has its time. When the TK-50 came it was great. > > No, it wasn't. We had better. It's predecessor still has no equal w.r.t. > greatness. DECtape was great in its day, it is one hell of a stretch to say it has no equal WRT greatness. The industry has failed to provide us with affordable tape backups, but that doesn't mean that some of the new tapes aren't very nice. I'd love to have VXA or something else if I could afford it. Even if DECtape were 70GB per reel, I doubt anyone would want to use it over modern tape media. >> An affordable >>and reasonably priced tape backup system (combined with the VMS backup >>software). In 1999, the TK-50 was well past its time. At that time you >>should have bought a DLT. Probably a DLT-7000 or 8000. Don't remember when >>the DLT-8000 came. > > Suggestion: go meet a DECtape (the real kind, not the wussy > thing that came out later and tried to capitalize on the name). He'll find an old and slow drive that isn't available any more and has a fraction of a DLT drive's storage capacity. Are you trying to suggest that DECtape was better than DLT? Surely not... -- shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed." -- Vaclav Havel] |