10 Nov
2008
10 Nov
'08
9:45 a.m.
But it's just a plain old 1/2 inch tape drive. And Fortran wouldn't care about
the specific model... In fact, if it's Fortran it could be easily ported to GCC
Fortran and run with any convenient 1/2 inch SCSI tape drive on a PC...
paul
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf
Of bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 12:34 PM
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Old tape drive proves its worth
Chuck Guzis wrote:
2008/11/10 Antonio Carlini <arcarlini at
iee.org>:
My guess, the program was written in FORTRAN just for that
drive.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/10/2415393.htm
An IBM729 Mark 5 tape drive grabbed the data for NASA.
Golly, why use an IBM pinch-roller drive (I remember the 729-IV on
S/360 gear) when a CDC vacuum-capstan drive would be far gentler on
the tape? A modern streamer might be gentler still.
Just curious about the selection of the drive.
Cheers,
Chuck