MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC APRICOT 340 - Manual (Page 52)

U s i n g F l o p p y D i s k , C D - R O M & T a p e D r i v e s
APRICOT 340 OWNER’S HANDBOOK 4/9
Using a SCSI DDS-2 tape drive
The computer may be configured with a SCSI DDS-2 (Digital Data
Storage v2.0) tape drive. The software needed to control the drive
depends on your operating environment; ask your supplier for
details.
1
2 3 4
1 cassette insertion slot
2 cassette-in-place indicator (green)
3 drive busy indicator (amber)
4 EJECT button.
The DDS-2 drive has a built-in compression algorithm which can
typically double, and in some cases quadruple, tape capacity. Data
compression and decompression is transparent to the host software.
The DDS-2 drive uses 120-metre cassettes. The drive automatically
detects whether cassettes are DDS-2 format, or the older DDS
format. It can read and write both DDS uncompressed and DDS-DC
compressed data.
The drive writes compressed data by default, unless it finds
uncompressed data already on the cassette. The drive can also write
uncompressed data under software control. When reading a cassette,
the DDS-2 drive automatically distinguishes compressed and
uncompressed data and either decompresses it or passes it through
unaltered as appropriate.