[Info-vax] RMS internals?

[norm.raphael at metso.com]

info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com 
[actually moroney at world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney) ] 
wrote on 08/12/2009 12:45:36 PM:

> Richard Gilbert writes:
> 
> > Are reel-to-reel nine track tape drives still in use anywhere?  Seven
> > track?  How about TK50 drives and cartridges?
> 
> I am actually involved right now in a project to replace a procedure 
where
> data files are written onto 9 track tape by a Unisys system and
> transferred over to a VAX about twice a month, with a procedure using 
FTP
> from the Unisys to an Itanic running VMS. (the main application already
> runs on the Itanic).  This is so the VAX and the tape drives can go 
away.
> 
> There are custom programs on the VAX that mounts the tapes and 
translates
> the data from some bizarre format to its own bizarre format.
> 
> The Unisys looks like a blast from the past or something from a bad 
movie,
> with 5 reel-to-reel full height drive cabinets.

I used to work on a GE/Honeywell 435 with 7-track Even Parity tapes, and I 

wrote a Fortran program to read 7-track even and write 9-track odd for 
migration.  The gotcha was that <zero> had to be two characters because of 

the even parity (there is no no-bit character as that would be blank 
tape).

Ah, the memories....