[vcf-midatlantic] Zilog System 8000

[Oliver Lehmann]

Hi computer history enthusiasts,

I hope that it is ok that I signed on to your list. I am
from germany and I'm looking for information about the
Zilog System 8000. I know that you owned at least one in
the past. I don't know if you still have it, but I hope
so :)

Bit more about what the background of my question is:

- I own a Zilog System 8000/21 but neither do I have a
   harddrive for it nor do I have a working tapedrive
   or any tape medias.
- A friend of mine also got a Zilog System 8000/21 lately
   but his harddrive is broken (heads do not find track 0),
   and his tape drive capstan went to "gum".
   He got a noriginal Zilog ZEUS (Zilogs UNIX) tape media
   but with the broken drives no way of backing it up or
   retrieve at least its contents.
- Today I found out, that another enthusiast from a local
   university also has a System 8000/32 (newer than /21
   with SMD harddisks) in the uni museum.
   He has a dying harddrive, a working tape drive but no
   media.

You see... lots of "missing", "dying" and so on....

I wonder in what condition your System 8000 is.
In the past (2009 and 2012 iirc) I had contact with
Jeff Jonas. He was trying to back up the tapes you guys
have for the system. But iirc his problem was also, that
the capstan of your System 8000s tape drive went literally
to fluid....

I wonder if there is any status update? We really could
need those tape images and it looks like there are not much
System 8000s around any one - and even less installation
medias.

Beware - even if the tape might fit into a regular QIC-11
Tape drive - its encoding is MFM - so far from any QIC
standard. It will only work with the original Tape drive
from the System 8000.
Please be extremly cautionous with the tape medias.
They might be the only ones left still be readable...
who knows.... Before you try anything - try it with
unimportant tapes many times before you risk the Zilog
tape.
Backing up over serial can not be recommended as the tape
will fetch data more then 10th as fast as the SIO can pump
it to a remote machine. This will lead to a permanent
stop/start mode the tape will work in resulting in maximum
stress for the Zilog tape. I would _not_ recommend this.

You see - I'm quite careful when it comes to your tape,
but still seeking out for any posibility to aquire a dump
of it somehow.

Any information about "my" S8000? Feel free to look it
up at
    http://www.pofo.de/S8000/


Regards,
Oliver!