On 3/7/23 22:34, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:
I’ll be the first to admit my question is a bit strange. Basically I’m trying to use the date that various media types were first introduced to show the oldest possible date for a bunch of media I’m trying to date. The 9-Track tapes have been inventoried as “700 6250 BPI”, and I know they’re the smaller reels. Doing some digging, it looks like 6250BPI tapes date back at least as far as 1971 with the IBM 3400 series drives, I’d thought that 6250 came about in the 80’s.
Wow! I'd love to see the 1971 vintage GCR tape controller, it must have been the size of a 360 CPU! We had a GCR controller from Storage Tech. in 1982 or so that was the same size as a PDP 11/44 large cabinet. CDC Keystone drives (92185) had it integrated into the 680x controller micro, which I thought was pretty amazing.
Jon
