On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 7:06 AM Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Yes, the TM02 and TM03 formatters allowed MASSBUS to connect to Pertec > drives, but I don't think you could run a tape drive and a disk drive on > the same MASSBUS channel anyway. Wonder why, technically the MASSBUS > cable is just an extension of the Unibus, so it shouldn't matter much > what combination of cables you used. Maybe they just wrote different > drivers or something. > There's nothing in the hardware that prevents it from being done, but DEC OSes don't support it, and it's generally not a good idea. Tape activity would block disk activity, because it doesn't have anything like modern "tagged command queuing".
