7207 TAPE DRIVE COMPATIBILITY (525MB AND 1.2 GB

ITEM: RTA000032845



QUESTION:                                                                       
With the withdrawal of the 7207-001 and 011 external tape drives                
from marketing in the near future, what are the compatibility (R/W)             
issues we have to consider when a customer has an investment in                 
model 011's (525mb) and will need to go to the model 012's (1.2GB)?             
                                                                                
I understand that, for example, a model 1 cannot read/write tapes               
from a model 11.  What about model 11 to model 12 and vice versa?               
                                                                                
---------- ---------- ---------- --------- ---------- ----------                
A:    You are correct, announcement letter 193-154 gives information            
    about the withdrawal from marketing of the 7207-001 and 7207-011.           
    However, your customer will still be able to use these tape drives          
    along with the newer 7207-012 1.2GB 1/4-inch tape.  The 7207-012            
    will be able to read and write tapes with these formats.                   
                                                                                
           FORMAT         DENSITY SETTING                                       
         ===========     =================                                      
           QIC-120         15                                                   
           QIC-150         16                                                   
           QIC-525         17                                                   
           QIC-1000        21                                                   
                                                                                
      With the capability of the 7207-012, you will still be able to            
   read tapes from the 001 and 011 tape drives, and with use of the             
   different density settings, will be able to write tapes that the             
   001 and 011 drives will be able to read.                                     
                                                                                
      Basically, the only problem that this will cause to your customer,        
   is that they will have to be careful when making backups to use             
   the correct tape density format.  The different densities can be             
   set up in 'smit chgtpe'.  Then after the correct density settings            
   are configured, the rmt special file can be used to choose which             
   density to use.  For example, rmt0, rmt0.1, rmt0.2, rmt0.3 means             
   that density setting #1 will be used and rmt0.4, rmt0.5, rmt0.6,             
   rmt0.7 will use density setting #2.                                          
                                                                                
      An example that might be useful in this situation.  If your               
   customer will be making a great deal of 525mb tapes to be sent out           
   to other machines and many 1.2GB tapes for use on this one machine,          
   leave the density setting #1 to 21 and make sure that density setting        
   #2 is 17.  Then when making and reading tapes for/from the other             
   machines use rmt#.4 through rmt#.7, and when making tapes for the            
   1.2GB machines use rmt# - rmt#.3.                                            
                                                                               
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This item was created from library item Q634947      CHTGG                      
                                                                                
Additional search words:                                                        
CHTGG COMPATIBILIT COMPATIBLE DEN DENSITY DRIVE DRIVER GB HARDWARE              
IX OZNEW RISCOHW RISCSYSTEM SEP93 TAPE 1.2 525MB 7207                           
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000032845 ITEM: RTA000032845
Dated: 04/1996 Category: RISCOHW
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