On 01/19/2017 08:12 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > On 01/19/2017 12:46 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: >> A streamer with big powerful reel servos makes me a bit nervous in >> those cases. After all, the design goal there is speed, not >> gentleness. > The CDC Keystone (92181 and 92185) drives have air bearing hubs that > sense tape tension by how tightly the tape is pulled over the > bearing. So, the ONLY thing that actually touches the data surface of > the tape is the head and the cleaner blade. Still, on deteriorated > tapes, it starts getting pretty bad. On good tapes from my archive, > it just takes a cleaning of the head after every reel.
I'm familiar with the CDC air-bearing hubs, having cut my magtape teeth many years ago on CDC 607 drives, then the 657/659 somewhat inferior ones, then eventually the 66x autoloaders. I'll agree that the system is very good, particularly in the case of vacuum-column drives. But I haven't seen any Keystone drives for sale lately. Pity that. --Chuck