24 Feb
2009
24 Feb
'09
2:30 p.m.
>>>> "David" == David Griffith
<dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> writes:
David> On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, Paul Koning wrote:
> And then there were DECtapes (the real ones, not
the TU58). Those
> sometimes ended up in the laundry by accident and were none the
> worse for wear. That tape is laminated, though; the oxide is
> under a mylar cover layer.
David> Given that, why aren't other mylar magnetic media similarly
David> laminated? Expense?
Interesting question. It's bound to be more expensive, yes.
I suspect it was a case of "good enough". 1/2 inch magtape existed
before, and was ok for secondary storage. The industry standard was
set, and it used plain old non-laminated tape, and that worked fine
for offline data and the like.
DECtape needed to be tougher because it was meant as a substitute for
disk. And it delivered. I met people at DEC who believed that it was
impossible for DECtape to wear out. That isn't true -- I saw it
happen at my college -- but it most definitely was a very rare event.
paul