🚀 go-pugleaf

I have one of these tape drives lying around (if something that big
can be considered to just lie around) that used to be connected to
a host which no longer survives (and I didn't really want to keep
anyway, and whose manufacturer no longer survives in any noticeable
form...)

On this host, the one thing that always worked well was the tape,
and I'd like to move it to someplace else if it can be done reasonably.

Fujitsu Australia can tell us a list of signal names (pin outs) for its
interface, but not much more - and I'm afraid tape drive interface
connector pin outs mean nothing to me, and I doubt that's the right
thing to take down to my local computer shop to see if they happen to
have a suitable controller...

Does anyone happen to know this tape drive (Fujitsu (Facom) M243XL)
and what kind of interface (pertec, ...) it might happen to be?
Its a 125 ips vacuum type GCR drive, with what looks to be a lot
of electronics (the drive and supporting boxes are almost as big as
the host it was connectd to).

Also, if anyone knows of a controller for a Sun or SGI that might
support this tape drive that would be great - Sun could be VME style
(4/260) or Sbus (SS2 or similar).  SGI would be IRIS 4D/340.

Any info appreciated - I'd much appreciate a reply via mail (to the
From: line, or to kre@munnari.oz.au), though I will try to monitor
these groups for the next week or so at least in case something is
posted here - though frankly I can't imagine there are enough people
who care about this topic for it to ever be seen again on usenet.

Thanks,

kre