> I think the documentation comment "cannot write variable-length > blocks and do not allow skipping forward over records between read > operations" was written when talking about the common cartridge tapes > that were available on 80s and 90s Unix workstations. I don't recall > the name. These things only supported fixed block size operations > and not variable record lengths (i.e. 80 byte tape labels, then > different sized data records, etc.).
Various QIC-defined formats. Block size usually 512, though a few computer companies apparently stuffed custom firmware into the drives to get other block sizes. (AS/400 did this, I think, and I've read that some Prime machines did it, though the 50-Series tapes I've read have been standard 512 blocks, with a controller-applied logical block spanning scheme so the drive looked more like 9-track.) De _______________________________________________ Simh mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
