On 07/09/2017 09:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 07/09/2017 05:20 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:
I have inherited maybe 1000 tapes that I will have to sort and see
if there is any salvaging. Not sure if they are any use, but it was
a one time opportunity to snag them.
The silly thing is that a $15 MCU with a SD card can probably handle a
Pertec interface with horsepower to spare. You could mount an MCU
inside the drive cabinet and use it with a USB or ethernet cable--or
WiFi, if you're ambitious enough for control. Most of the job is 5V
level shifting.
You could do a controller using the Beagle Bone black and
the PRU devices, which are 200 MHz 32-bit microcontrollers
built into the Bone's processor.
I used an FPGA to do a formatted Pertec interface for my CDC
Keystone drives, but if I were to do it today, I would use
the Beagle Bone. The only thing I don't know how to do
right now is to open a memory window from the PRU to main
ARM memory to handle larger block sizes. But, I know others
have already done that.
Jon
