On Fri, 25 May 2001, Geoff Roberts wrote:

> > (my TU78 is taller than me and is _liquid
> > cooled_ and consumes over 3 kilowatts!
> 
> Eh???  My TA/TU 78 pair were power hogs to be sure, but they are not
> liquid cooled.

No, they are not. Definitely air cooled.

> The TA79 is virtually identical but it isn't either.  I think you may be
> confusing all the air/vaccuum tubing with cooling, it isn't, everthing
> on these is air driven, even the motors run on compressed air.

No, the motors are electric, but they are actuated by air pressure.

Also, when we talk large tape drives, the TU models are massbus, and
*very* unlikely to be connected to a VAX 6000 machine. TA are TMSCP over
DSI, which is probably the most common solution. (TU80/81 are not large
drives by the way. :-)

> I still have 2 TA79's, which were slightly better, but same basic
> design.  One day I might get adventurous and
> fire it up, but the Tu81+ is lots easier.....

Yes, and lots slower.

> > unless you have old tapes to read or you _really_ want a blast from
> the
> > past, i wouldnt bother with 9tracks. You can barely put 50 megs on a
> > reel.
> 
> 250mb actually. (mine can do that density anyway)

Hmmm, did you really manage to squeeze that much onto a reel?
Not bad at all.

	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol