Eureka!

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon Feb 10 17:48:00 2003

> >I assume it connects to the 9825 using a 98032 16 bit interface.
>
> Correct. somewhere I do have the installation manual for the 9877
> and it does clearly show a 98032 interface. I don't remember the option

I am not suprised. It's the only standard interface that would make any sense
at all.

> number of the interface but it's probably 77 or 077. That seems to be
> typical of how HP assigns option numbers on the 98032.

Yes. I've seen some 3 digit option codes where the first digit indicated
the host computer it was to work it (4xx numbers for the 9845, etc), but
that was probably just specifying the driver software tape to include.

>
>
> Do you
> >(or anoyne else) have the wiring for the cable and the jumpers for the
> >98032?
>
> No, that's another thing that needs to be found. NASA does have the
> interface on theirs but I couldn't get them to give me any info about
> the jumpers or anything other than the interface PN.

I assume you can't convince them to leave you alone with the interface
for an hour :-). At which point, of course you unscrew the back shell and
note down the jumpers, and also buzz out the connections between the
connectors.

>
>
> That's something else I've not managed to find (98032s I have,
> >plenty of them).
>
> Same here.

Incidentally, I am looking for jumpers/wirelists for any of the options
other than 085...

>
> >
> >[...]
> >
> >> program for it till now. The tape APPEARS to be in good condition but
> >> you know how HP tapes are :-(
> >
> >If it is readable, can the 9877 be used to duplicate it?
>
> It should be able to. AFIK the 9877 will duplicate all 9825 tapes.
> Accroding to an x-HP engineer that was one of the 9825 developers, the
> 9877 was designed specificly for HP factory use to mass duplicate 9825
> tapes so I would think it would duplicate everything. I don't remember
> if the 9825 has a file protect command or not but if so then it might
> not duplicate protected files.

I am pretty sure the 9825 does have some kind of 'private' file
capability -- even the 9830 does. On the other hand, it's just a bit set
in the file header or something, so it is _possible_ to duplicate them.
HP must have had a way of doing this (they didn't protect each individual
tape they shipped, surely :-)).

The 9877 is a very low level device (like the tape controller in the
9825). It works at the bit level. It doesn't even turn those bits into
bytes/words (the internal 9825 controller does use DMA, but it transfers
data to/from the LSB of the memory words only. Software then repacks that
into bytes/words!). The 9877 is similar -- my guess, without proof, is
that it uses the DMA capability of the 98032. It could read a block from
one tape into a buffer in the 9825, then write it out to another tape.
Note there's no internal hardware to automatically copy between tapes or
anything like that -- all transfers must go via the 9825 memory.

So the 9877 hardware is surely capablable of copying a protected tape.
Whether the software prevents you is, of course, another matter.

-tony
Received on Mon Feb 10 2003 - 17:48:00 GMT