27 Jan
2015
27 Jan
'15
6:51 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Hilpert" <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: Destructive Imaging of DECTAPE II Media
On 2015-Jan-27, at 3:58 PM, Mike Stein wrote:
I can't find it at the moment but somewhere I have
a Burroughs digital
cassette drive, capstan-less and capable of high-speed bidirectional seek.
AFAIK it uses the standard half-track mono tape format, one track for data
and the other for the clock.
That description fits the tape system used in the HP9830. The tape transport
is actually a "DigiDeck" OEM'd by International Computer Products, out of
Dallas, Texas. The head is non-standard though, in that it R/Ws both
half-tracks simultaneously.
Don't know if it'd be useful and not sure if I
want to part with it
permanently, but keep it in mind if nothing else works out and you get
desperate ;-)
I don't think it would be of any benefit to the OP's interest over what he
already has to work with.=
----- Reply -----
Probably not, but I thought I'd mention it just in case; it doesn't use a
pinch roller though, and it is completely digital, FWIW.
I don't recall whether it was a DigiDeck, but ISTR that I compared the BBM
unit to another digital deck that was (relatively) popular way back when,
and I'm pretty sure that they were different.
http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/images/fullsize/burr0050.jpg
They were mostly used with Burroughs Series L machines, but I think some of
the small B series could also be equipped with them. I've still got a few
boxes of utility, game and program tapes for Burroughs L series machine, but
working L's are pretty thin on the ground so I sometimes toy with building
an emulator; that's why I still have the tapes and the drives (although
unfortunately I threw out a lot of paper tapes a long time ago), but that
project is pretty far down on the list...
Just a thought...
m
