20 Mar
2021
20 Mar
'21
1:13 p.m.
On Mar 20, 2021, at 4:07 PM, Kyle Owen via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Why did DEC not use the LINCtape format for the PDP-8? I assume maintaining
format compatibility between their low, mid, and high range systems was
important to them? I suppose there was no other good solution to
transferring large files across different DEC platforms than to use
magnetic tape...so I may have answered my own question here.
Kyle
Speculating here since I have no direct knowledge: the DECtape format allows read and
write in either direction, while LINCtape only allows read and write forward. The
bidirectional I/O capability was part of DECtape format from the start, and I suspect the
desire was to keep that.
Also, the DECtape format (ignoring the funny bit order in the PDP-1 case) is the same
across all models except for the block size and count in the PDP-8 case. Chances are the
desire was to reuse all that design.
paul