Re: [TUHS] Ultrix Tape: Block Size?

DEC Tape II was the serial driven TU58. The TK50 was CompacTape or something like that. It was the predecessor of a number of square tapes... See DLT on Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Linear_Tape Bill -----Original Message----- From: Paul Winalski <paul.winalski(a)gmail.com> To: Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs(a)tuhs.org>, cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Sent: Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:14 Subject: Re: [TUHS] Ultrix Tape: Block Size? On 10/15/18, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote: The original DECtape was extremely reliable. Not so the TK50. Calling it "DECtape II" was an insult to the original DECtape. The problem wasn't so much the drive itself, but the controller. In an effort to reduce costs, DEC used a controller that had insufficient buffering capability for a streaming, block-replacement tape device such as the TK50. TK50s were prone to both data-late and overrun errors. The block size is almost certainly 512 bytes. -Paul W.