🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <6200@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> tim@bcm.tmc.edu (Timothy Owen Lesniak) writes:
> 
> Has anyone out there had any experience with
> Micro Technology's 8mm tapedrives connected
> via VAXBI on a VAX 6210.  They claim to be the largest
> distributers of 8mm subsystems to the DEC market.

Haven't tried it though it looks interesting.
 
> We are specifically looking at the 8500 (5GB) exabyte
> drives, but I would welcome all comments about the
> reliability of any MT manufactured subsystem.  I would
> also appreciate all comments about MT's service after
> the sale.

Probably about average.  Between the general flakeynes of the
basic 8MM drives and occasional controller problems with our
HSC based 8MM drive we've seen them more often than we like.

We have one very big gripe, which is that their HSC based drives
appear to be dual-ported, i.e. they have two SDI connectors
and will work in dual-port mode, however when the ports are
hooked up to two different clusters, you get a continual string
of error messages on the HSC console.

They have refused to make any commitment on if/when this problem
will be fixed, leaving us the option of either manually dicking
with the A/B switches or getting a second controller/drive.  

Any advertising claims about market share or relative reliability
should be taken with a few grains of salt anyway.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)