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Where can I find docs for Sony DDS hardware?

Hi Mr.Dave, I am Max from Italy and I am a technician. At the moment I am searching for tutorials or service manuals about DDS2-3 and AIT1-2-3 like the SONY SDT-7000, SDT-9000, SDT-10000 and SONY SDX-300C, SDX-400C, SDX-500C but with no results!! I strongly need these documentations, because i must repair these DAT units. Helicoidal scan technology is used in these devices and our clients use those under SCO OPEN SERVER 5.0.4. I have already requested this material from SONY, but their answer has been negative.

Dave's Answer:

First off, a true confession. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about here, Max! I'm guessing that you're talking about fixing a digital audio tape (DAT) backup unit from Sony that's being used with SCO Unix, but I could well be wrong.

The good news is that I don't really need to know exactly what you're talking about to spend some time poking around with Google and other search engines, and indeed I found something for you!

As far as I can tell, service manuals for the SDT-9000 can be found on the Sony site at http://sony.storagesupport.com/dds/sdt_9000.htm#docs.

In fact, if you back up one level, to here, you'll find that you can select between the following DDS units:

SDT-5000
SDT-5200
SDT-7000
SDT-7200
SDT-9000
SDT-10000
SDT-11000

Further, the FAQ on the site confirms my suspicion about these devices, they're DDS systems:

"DDS evolved from DAT (Digital Audio Tape) and uses the same recording principle as home video recorders. However, instead of recording analogue video signals, it records digital data. Both use the same type of tape, but computer grade DDS tape must meet strict ANSI standards. This means it has a much lower BER (Bit Error Rate) than most DAT tape and is therefore more reliable. Unlike audio DAT tape, DDS is certified "error free".

So now we all know. Hope this helps!

My thanks to Lev for his help with this research question.

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Categorized: Unix and Linux Help (Article 3956)
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Comments

Many of the PDFs for sony DDS and AIT drives can be found from the
links on the Sony.net page listed below:
http://www.sony.net/Products/storagesolution/documents/manual.html

This includes Sony S-AIT drives
SDX-550V/P,SDX-560V/P, SDX-450V/P, SDX-460V/P, SDX-250V/P,
SDX-260V/P. SDT-11000,SDZ-130, TSL-11000.

and many more.
CGT

Posted by: Chris Thomas at April 11, 2005 9:54 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!