Questions on Tape Drives

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Article #71

#71

From: Tzi-cker Chiueh
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 21:08

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Hi, 

I have two questions on tape drives. Hope someone on the net can enlighten me.

1) Although tapes are cheap, but tape drives are more expensive than disk drives.
    Why is this the case? Also could someone tell me what is the breakdown of a
   tape drive's cost. For example, the tape transport mechanism, the R/W head, 
   and the A/D & DSP elctronics.

2) The "position angle" of a tape head with respect to a tape in 4mm and 8mm 
   tape drive is 90 and 200+ (?) degrees, but is 0 degree for linear scan tapes.
   Can someone explain what is the design consideration for this ? 
   Also, does this mean that for 4mm and 8mm tapes, the head must touch the tape
   during read/writes?

Thanks.

Tzi-cker

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From: chiueh@sprite.Berkeley.EDU (Tzi-cker Chiueh)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.storage
Subject: Questions on Tape Drives
Message-ID: <44671@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:08:43 GMT
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