un*x box tape drive

[bruno@oz.geology.washington.edu (Steve Willis)]

hello,
   has anyone successfully used a unix box tape drive (say /dev/nrmt8 ) 
from a lisp machine??  Software support assures me that they don't know
how to do it, although we can't imagine that it hasnt been done.  Don't
the UX400's use the host tape drives and other devices??  Does our 70
need special software for this, do I need to modify the namespace, or
(god forbid) do we need to get the appropriate protocals and services
built into the unix kernal??  I would be grateful for any enlightenment
anyone could provide.
thanks,
steve willis