14 Dec
2007
14 Dec
'07
5:02 p.m.
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Unforuately, I don't think any 8-track machines had 8 head windings. Most
had a 2-winding head that was shifteded mechjancialy to one of 4 postions
on the tape. Although I've never seen such a machine, I do have
schematics for a few such machines with 4-coil heads that could be used
to record and play quadraphonic tapes.
Of ocurse there's no reason why you hsve a to have 8-bit words. With a
4-coil head you cold have 3 bits and a clock track, like the
HP9100/HP9810/HP9820 magnetic card reader.
To go off-thread but more on-topic. am I the only person to rememebr that
the Exidy sorceror cartridges with 8-track tape cases with a PCB
containing EPROMs in them.
This whole idea strikes me as just plain
crazy...
But! For some reason the above reminded me of something that I was
considering early on, probably early 1970s or so. Instead of a drum just
use a loop of tape. You can start with an old reel-to-reel deck, ignoring
Howzbout an 8-track? Unfortunately, the kids today don't even remember
them, so wouldn't fully
appreciate the absurdity.
Wel, the tape loop was rather long. An access time of up to 30 minutes
would seem to be somewhat impractcal. But I don't see why you couldn't
shorten the tape look to something more useable.
-tony