DECtape ancestry

[Al Kossow]

On 3/11/21 6:18 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
> On 3/11/21 6:16 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
>> On 3/11/21 6:12 PM, Bob Smith via cctalk wrote:
>>> My recollection was the Linc was inspired by the Whirlwind. Whirlwind
>>> predates it by a few years.
>>
>> Tom Stockebrand is the connecting link between all of these tape systems.
>>
>> I don't know if he was involved with the original Raytheon tape design
>> for Whirlwind but he is known to have work on the tape system for the
>> Memory Test Computer and certainly would be aware of how the WW tape
>> system worked.
>>
>>
>   He also did the magtape system for TX-2
> 

there are memos in the Whirlwind archives that show the magnetic tape they
were getting had so many imperfections that they had to double up on the
tracks to make it reliable