Demo of QICTAPE
27 messages in this thread
QTAPED.LZH/binary 16-Nov-90 55646
Title : Demo of QUICTAPE from Progressive Peripherals
Keywords: QICTAPE PP&S TAPE BACKUP TAPEDRIVE MVMICRO ARCHIVE QIC40
HARDDRIVE STREAMING
This is the functional demo of QICTAPE, the new tape drive backup
system from Progressive Peripherals & Software + M.V. Micro. QICTAPE
offers an inexpensive, reliable system for archiving needs and backup
of harddrive systems with little intervention. QICTAPE requires little
setup, works on ALL Amiga systems, and needs no SCSI controller. The
ultimate backup system for the Amiga. Try out this demo- the interface
is wonderfull.
Betty,
In all the D/L description of QICTAPE, I didn't see anything mentioning
what hardware was needed. Obviously, there has to be some, or it wouldn't
be a "backup to tape" system. I'm not going to download 55Kb of data only
to find out that I have to buy some expensive device to use it! 🙂
Signed, Interested but Perplexed…
Edwin Wiles – elw@netx.com (I got a *domain*!) – Software Engineer
The demo shows you what the software will look like, almost as easy to use
as Quarterback in terms of what it looks like. The dl file tells NOTHING
about how it is hooked up to the Amiga, nor how much the tape drive will
cost, etc. I BELIEVE that it is a drive made by a pc oriented tape drive
company (I'll let them name it but I do believe I know who), and I also
believe that it hooks up to the Amiga using the floppy port. PP's efforts
would have to have been 1. creating a cable adaptor for the existing drive,
2. writing an Amiga version of the backup software. I rather doubt that
they'd sell the adaptor and software separately, but you never know. I've
also asked them if they'd release a bridgeboard adaptor (along with the
original pc software) as well. To the best of my knowledge they are not
answering anyone's questions here so far.
Ron
Ron,
They may not be answering messages here, but they will answer questions if
you call them on the phone as I did today (11/19/90).
The unit does connect with the floppy port (Yes, it is based on the
Colorado Memory Systems unit.
It will retail for 599.95 and will be available in 3 weeks. (hope, hope)
As far as the BB is concerned, I have a friend who is already using a CMS
system with it. He got a cheap floppy controller card and hooked the CMS
unit up to it. No problems the last time I talked to him.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
I wasn't going to announce that they were working with Colorado and its
Jumbo, but at this point I guess its no longer a secret. Theoretically if
its retailing for 599.95 then it should eventually be discounted to about
the same price range as the Jumbo. Price of course would be higher if
external then internal; which is that price for? As to availability, it
was originally expected quite a while ago, but that's no big surprise.
I don't have any spare slots for a floppy card for the bb side; the
question is whether PP will allow their setup to be used on the bb side as
well as the Ami side, in both cases by hooking up to the external floppy
connectors (xt bb).
Ron
You mentioned the CMS Jumbo. Isn't that the larger one that will handle 120
meg tapes? I had gathered from the ad that they were using the smaller one
that only handles up to 60 meg.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
Jumbo has a setup that is just like this; I assume that is what was adapted
here. Note that for the types of data thruput that one gets thru a floppy
port the small drive is probably the best bet; if you want high capacity
tape like 120 you'd probably want something that has a faster thruput.
Ron
Ron,
As far as speed goes, I thought I'd heard a figure of 40 megs in 18 mins.
Not exactly blinding speed, but since it is unattended and can be setup to
start up in the middle of the nite, not too bad.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
Greg,
Is that really $599? I thought it was announced at AmiExpo in Anahiem as
$399.95? $200 hihger and a quarter late on release in less than two months
is not a good sign!
wmc
Wayne,
That's what I was told by the person on the phone. I was given retail
prices and dealer prices in various quantities. (BTW the dealer cost was
higher than $399.)
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
Greg,
I checked the printed info on QICTAPE that I picked up at AmiExpo and it
was $399.95. Do you suppose the Gulf crisis is driving the cost of parts
up? ;^}
wmc
Well, I hope your price is right, rather than mine. However the retail and
dealer prices I was quoted by Progressive support the $599.99 price..i.e.
the dealer price I was quoted was higher than $399.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
Greg,
If you E-Mail me an address I will photo copy the stuff I picke up at the
Expo with the 399 price to you. Maybe if you have black and white in hand
you can get an explanation from them.
wmc
We have a Colorado Memory Systems 60Meg unit QICTAPE backup that we use on
our Compaq/Vista system. Is there a way it can be adapted for duty on our
2000 and 1000?
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
If this is the one that plugs into the PC floppy controller, then I imagine
it is possible with the correct adapter and software.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
No. I do not think it is the same one. This one plugs directly into a
8-bit card that is in one of the slots. Not tied into the floppy
controller. Still seems to me that I can get a cable that will interface
with the amiga. What do you think?
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
Well, from what I read in a message from Reid Bishop on here, it sounds
like a fairly complex interface is used to hook the CMS unit to the Amiga.
It may be possible, but perhaps not easy.
Greg
Greg White / MicroSearch 72230,1617
We listen to our customers..carefully
Well, I hope that Reid or someone can help me to interface our Tecmar tape
backup unit to work with our Amigas. If anyone knows how to accomplish
this, please leave me a message or call me during regular business hours at
(800) 327-6296. Thanks.
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ron,
Thanks for the info! Enjoy!
Edwin Wiles – elw@netx.com (I got a *domain*!) – Software Engineer
Edwin, it states pretty clearly that this is a demo of a tape backup system
from Progressive Peripherals. I rather strongly suspect that you will have
to buy a SCSI tape backup system before you could use it. This will let
you see the user interface, and will give information about what they have
– but it won't back up your disk.
Betty
Betty, its not a scsi device, as they keep reminding us (they seem to hate
scsi). It is based on Jumbo by Colorado Memory Systems, and hooks up to
the floppy port. What PP has done is to do whatever is needed (cable and
probably a chip or two) to adapt the Ami floppy port to the Jumbo and to
create an Intuition based version of the Jumbo software.
BTW, to adapt it to the bb (xt bb) as well is probably minimal if anything
since some of us already have software that ought to work (PC Tools V6).
Ron
Ron,
"Adapting" the Jumbo drive to the Amiga is perhaps an over simplified
statement.
Remember the Amiga has no floppy controller, thus we must use the Amiga
hardware in conjunction with software to use floppy drives. In the case of
the Jumbo drive, this turned out to be _quite_ an ordeal. Obviously the
trackdisk.device would not work in this scenario, so we basically had to
create a software "engine" to talk to the drive. Since this is a streaming
device that requires MFM encoding, it is much more difficult to keep up
with in the Amiga's multitasking environment. (This is perhaps one
instance where multitasking actually made what would seem to be an easy
task MUCH more difficult!!)
Suffice to say, there was some question as to whether we could _ever_ get
this drive to work on the Amiga, and the software went through several
re-writes to perfect it.
As to adapting it to the BB, I cannot say at this moment if this would be
possible. The drive-select method of the Amiga hardware required a
modification of the drive interface, as well as some changes to watch drive
specific signals. From the onset of the project, BB compatiblity was
considered to be a low-priority topic until we were certain the Amiga
hardware was capable of producing reliable results with the Jumbo drive.
As time pushed on, concerns about release dates for QICTAPE forced us to
push BB compatiblity onto the back burner until we can take a closer look
at it. This is not to say it will _not_ work, but we will look at the
possibilities.
Reid- M.V. Micro
Reid, this answers some of the questions I put to you in my email message;
so you can selectively ignore parts of it! 🙂
As to bb compatibility, I understand why you didn't provide it at this
point, but given that bb users have no current options I hope you'll look
at this. Question; given that the 2088 bb has what SEEMS to be a normal
floppy connector, does adapting Jumbo to the bb require anything more than
a cable adaptor?
Ron
Betty,
Having dealt with other "demo" products, I presumed it was minimally
functional. I will add this category of "demo" to my 'list'.
Thanks for the info!
Enjoy!
Edwin Wiles – elw@netx.com (I got a *domain*!) – Software Engineer
Betty,
The QICTAPE demo is primarily intended to show just how the software
operates, i.e. how files are selected for backup, how the scheduler works
(very versatile and easy to use..), and some of the other important
parameters affect it. You do NOT need a SCSI tape drive for QICTAPE.
QICTAPE is an fully inclusive system, which uses a tape drive that connects
to the external floppy port of the Amiga. The drive is manufactured by
Colorado Memory Systems and is by far one of the most popular tape drives
in the world. It is simple, economical, and quite inexpensive. This
system is designed to work on all Amiga systems, regardless of how they are
configured, thus no matter which hard drive controller one may have
installed, QICTAPE installs the same way. Basically a plug-n-go system.
Reid- M.V. Micro
Thanks for the information, Reid.
Betty