[78-L] Cassette tapes are the future of big data storage

[Robert M. Bratcher Jr.]

I had a Windows 3.0 (or was it3.1?) PC that either had a QIC-40 or a QIC-80 drive which I used for backups many years ago, It was ok as I remember but the next PC didn't have one at all.



>________________________________
>From: David Breneman <david_breneman at yahoo.com>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
>Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 4:30 PM
>Subject: Re: [78-L] Cassette tapes are the future of big data storage
>
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>________________________________
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>>Sure, why not go full circle. My first computer was a Timex-Sinclair and 
>>it stored its programs on audio cassettes. I could upload to cassette in 
>>real time but could download at 2X which was convenient. I still have 
>>the computer and the cassettes. I haven't fired it up in almost 30 years!
>
>I never got into home computers, it was always a way of paying the
>bills for me, so I never used a machine with an audio cassette
>input.  It was just recorded modem sounds, wasn't it?  I once did
>something similar feeding an ASR-33 Teletype with a tape recording of
>itself made off the phone line.
>
>But cartridge tapes have been commonplace for decades.  IBM built
>9-track drives that used a tape with a special band around the
>reel that allowed to tape drive to loosen the band, blow the end
>of the tape out a slot in the band, and thread it automatically. In
>the 80s, the QIC format cassettes were almost as common as 9-tracks.
>Every vendor had one, even it they weren't compatible with each
>other.  Then came the Exabyte drives that used an 8mm video cassette.
>Those were followed by the DDS drives that used a tape based on the
>DAT tape.  DEC had a cartridge tape that evolved into the DLT and
>its successor the LTO cartridges.  The thing that I found confusing
>
>about the article was that it's nothing new.
>
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