NS9 Tape drives

From: Bennett (bjprice_at_itsa.ucsf.edu)
Date: 12/30/03 

Date: 30 Dec 2003 07:52:02 -0800

I know that TR4 tape drives get ~8MB capacity through software
compression while NS8 drives have built-in hardware compression.

Here's the question: are all NS8 drives alike? If I do a hardware
compressed backup on a Brand X NS8, can I restore on a Brand Y NS8?

I ran across a hint somewhere that Imation defined NS8 but I can't
confirm this. Any thoughts?

Is there any difference between NS8 and NS8 Pro?

I also ran across a statement, worded somewhat ambiguously, that once
a TR4 tape was used on a NS8 drive it could no longer be used on a TR4
drive. It implied that NS8 would (might?) change the formatting
unalterably. Any thoughts?

TIA