looking for a 7-track reel tape controller

[Paul Anderson]

I think you could change heads in a TU10 and add or take out a few boards.
I've worked on 7 and 9 track versions in the day.

On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 6:43 PM Michael Thompson via cctech <
cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> >
> > thanks a lot for your hint to the DEC controller. I wasn't aware that the
> > TM11, TMA11 and TMB11 controllers can handle 9-track as well as 7-track
> > NRZI-encoded tape drives. However, all these controllers seem to be very
> > rare in the public out there. Not too surprising considering that DEC TU
> > and TS tape drives themselves are rare and that 7-track tape drives were
> > soon replaced by 9-track tape technology in the early days.
> >
> > With best regards,
> > Pierre
> >
>
> The TC58 Magnetic Tape Controller for the PDP-8 and the TC59 for the PDP-9
> can be connected to both 7-track and 9-track drives. The TU20 drive on the
> PDP-9 at the RICM is a 7-track drive. The only difference between the
> 7-track and 9-track versions of the TU20 is the tape head. All of the tape
> drive electronics is the same for both versions.
>
> --
> Michael Thompson
>