I used to have an Overland Tape drive. You don't hook it up Bus & Tag <g> you hook it up to a PC. IIRC ours was SCSI-attached. It came with software, and there are APIs -- I wrote some additional software (in-house use, quick and dirty type stuff). You get the data off of the tape and then you send it off wherever you want it.
Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Radoslaw Skorupka Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 1:32 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: [External] Re: access to 9-track reel tape drive Obviously it is possible to get (buy) 3420 compatible tape drive. However it is not so cheap. Tape drive is connected using Bus & Tag interface, so one would need to buy ESCON converter and FICON converter. I just checked: $8500 for tape drive $130 for ESCON converted (new, Optica brand, but from some broker) $50000 for FICON converter Of course the prices may vary significantly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
