A little HP9877 info

From: joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Thu Jun 28 10:55:09 2001

At 11:39 PM 6/26/01 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> > At 09:26 PM 6/26/01 +0100, you wrote:
> > >I rmemeber that somebody here was looking for info on the HP9877
> > >'External Tape Memory'
> >
> > I was one of them.
>
>Right. I couldn't remember which of the many HP collectors here is
>looking for info on this unit.
>
> > Yes, that's what it was used for within HP. One HP engineer that I
> > talked to said that it was used at HP to produce all of the tapes that HP
> > sold. He thought it was used for tapes for machines other than just the
> > 9825 but he wasn't positive. I think that's likely since no other tape
> > duplication device was made at HP AFIK.
>
>It would certainly copy tapes for the 9831, which has the same tape
>controller as the 9825. I suspect the 9835 amd 9845 are similar, but I
>don't have those machines so I can't check. I don't know if 9815 tapes
>can be copied on this unit -- the 9815 has the same tape mechanism (and
>the little PCB attached to that is the same), but the tape controller is
>very different (it's even more software-intensive on the 9815, it uses
>the 6800 processor for just about everything).


     Both the read and fast forward (and rewind) tape speeds are a lot
lower on the 9815 than it is on the 9825 and other HPs. So the 9877 may
not be able to read 9815 tapes, but OTOH it may be able read and write them
even though it can't "process" them. In any event, I'm told that there was
a cable that could be used to connect two 9815s so that you could read a
tape on one and duplicate it on the other. Sort of a null-modem. I expect
that was what was used to duplicate tapes for the 9815. I'm also
reasonable certain that the 9815 predates the 9877 so HP would have had
have used something other than the 9877 to create 9815 tapes.

     Joe
Received on Thu Jun 28 2001 - 10:55:09 BST