Talk:TS04 Tape Transport

Alternative name

I wonder when the 'TS04' name came in? When I was doing this separate page for the drive, I had carefully looked for a name for the drive in the documentation, and couldn't find one. (Which surprised me, a bit; it must have been non-optimal not to have a separate, specific name for the drive. That is possibly why they eventually added the 'TS04' name?) I just had a look again, in the User Guide, Technical Manual, and Pocket Service Guide, and none of them mention 'TS04'. The latest one of those is dated 1984, and the drive came in around 1980, so the new name must have been fairly late in its life. Bitsavers does have an image of the drive, clearly labelled as a 'TS04', so it was an official DEC name, not something the users came up with. Jnc (talk) 15:34, 31 December 2023 (CET)

All three TS11 Engineering Drawings from bitsavers (the earliest from '79) show the TS04 as the drives' name in several places, e.g.: "TS04-AA DRIVE AND FRAME ASSY", so that's a real DEC name, even if a little uncommon. Vaxorcist (talk) 17:27, 31 December 2023 (CET)

Good catch!

I wonder why left it out of the manuals? Jnc (talk) 17:35, 31 December 2023 (CET)

I think it started as TS04 (in 1979) and was called TS11 later on, except for the drawings. So the TS04 was kept internally and TS11 used for promotion I think. Vaxorcist (talk) 17:37, 31 December 2023 (CET)

I was thinking: since 'TS04' was a 'real' DEC name for the drive, from early on, even if not the 'official' name, should we move this page to TS04 Tape Transport, or something? (I seem to have used "magtape drive" as the standard term/name, instead of 'tape drive', but DEC did not seem to use either one; the TU10 seems to have been the "TU10 DECmagtape" - maybe I should fix that, the TU78 drive was the "TU78 magnetic tape transport", the TU80 drive was the "TU80 Tape Transport" ... etc. 'Tape Transport' seems to be the one DEC used the most - e.g. "TU20 Tape Transport".) Looking at the FMPS, all I see is "TS04", I could not find any indication of what DEC called it. Jnc (talk) 18:15, 31 December 2023 (CET)

I would vote for TS04 Tape Transport and "Tape Transport" as standard term/name. Vaxorcist (talk) 19:11, 31 December 2023 (CET)

Sounds good - except for ones like "TU78 magnetic tape transport", where DEC documentation gives the full name. Jnc (talk) 19:31, 31 December 2023 (CET)