Well, as others have pointed out, a "tape transport" is not the whole ball-of-wax. You need the ability to format the tape into blocks and then control tape motion in terms of those blocks. That's what you'd be responsible for in your added electronics. From the Introduction in the Kennedy manual:
"The Model 9800 is equipped with the electronics necessary for reading and writing tapes and for controlling the tape motion. The head specifications and the mechanical and electrical tolerances of the Model 9800 meet the requirements for IBM compatibility. However, the formatting electronics, parity generator, cyclic redundancy check character (CRCC) generator, gap control, etc, are not included and must be provided by the tape control and formatter in order to generate properly formatted IBM compatible tapes." -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Anders Nelson via cctalk Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 1:41 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: HP 7970E - interest to split? Ah, yeah that's actually better for my purpose. I'm more concerned with the data interface - can I just read and write bits at will or are there contingencies as someone mentioned before? =] On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 12:06 AM Paul Birkel <pbir...@gmail.com> wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Anders > Nelson via cctalk > Sent: Monday, September 25, 2017 7:01 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: HP 7970E - interest to split? > > Hmmm, interesting. How does the 7970 compare to the Kennedy 9800?: > > > http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kennedy-9800-9-Track-Data-Tape-Subsystem/232493086636 > > For the same price the Kennedy drive looks more beautimous... > > =] > > -- > Anders Nelson > > ----- > > > http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/kennedy/Kennedy_9800_Digital_Tape_Transport_Operation_and_Maintenance_Manual.pdf > > 8.5" reels (not the full size 10.5") > > > http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/hp/tape/7970/07970-90885_7970oper_Dec76.pdf > > ----- > > -- -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com
