Subject: Re: VAX magtape TU81
To: saad mogren <s_mogren@yahoo.com>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-vax
Date: 05/15/2001 18:45:14
>>> is there a way to connect TU81 to linux pc, is there a Qbus card
>>> which can be installed or compatible with intel pc.
>> Sure, if the pc in question has a Qbus.
>> I've never heard of an Intel-based machine with a Qbus.  Someone
>> somewhere may have made a PCI-to-Qbus or ISA-to-Qbus bridge, [...]
> many thanks for yur reply, what about SUN machine does it have Qbus
> interface,

No.  Modern Suns, from what little I know of them, tend to be PCI.
Older Suns are SBus.  Even older are VME.

Again, there may exist a PCI-to-Qbus, SBus-to-Qbus, or even VME-to-Qbus
bridge.  And again, I'd be astonished if the software support were
there.  (And again, it'd be Really Cool to see it appear. :-)

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mcguire@neurotica.com (quoted and) wrote

>> many thanks for yur reply, what about SUN machine does it have Qbus
>> interface,

> Qbus is a DEC proprietary bus.  [...]  You'll have to get your hands
> on a DEC machine if you want to use that tape drive.

What's proprietary about the Qbus?  It's certainly well enough
documented; I once was one of a pair of people who built a Qbus board
out of discrete logic.  (And in the process learned something about
proper power supply bypassing. :-/)

Mind you, given how little it takes to get a Qbus machine these days,
the recommendation about just plonking one on a LAN with the relevant
machine is certainly the most practical way to go.

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