DEC UNIBUS and use of cassette

[Jay Jaeger]

On 8/21/2021 3:44 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 1:49 PM Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
> cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>>      > From: Bill Degnan
>>
>>      > Was there a UNIBUS storage system that used a cassette player as the
>>      > storage device .., rigged to send receive signals via a serial card
>>      > connection.
>>
>> Yes and no. There is the TA11 Magnetic Tape Cassette System, which used the
>> TU60 Dual DECasette Transport (I need to create a page for that in the
>> CHWiki), but it uses a special controller card, the TA11 Magnetic Tape
>> Cassette controller:
>>
>>    https://gunkies.org/wiki/TA11_Magnetic_Tape_Cassette_controller
>>
>> There is a small cheap tape system which used a stock serial interface to
>> talk
>> to the computer, the TU58, but those used DECtpe-II cartridges, not
>> standard
>> casettes.
>>
>>          Noel
>>
> 
> Thanks Noel.  I suppose if it was done it was a hack/not official system.
> Bill
> 

There were third party cassette systems, typically using some kind of 
digital cassette format, that you could hook up with a terminal.  One 
was made by Sykes that I played with once upon a time:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sykes/brochures/Sykes_3000_Cassete_Brochure.pdf

But not UNIBUS - it was just a standard serial port thing, not tied to 
any particular computer system.