TA79 Magnetic Tape Drive

TA79
Manufacturer:	DEC
Drive Controller(s):	any Hierarchical Storage Controller
Interface Type:	Standard Tape Interconnect
Media:	standard half-inch 9-track tape
Tape density:	1600 bpi, 6250 bpi
Capacity:	40 Mbytes (PE, 2Kbyte blocks) 145 Mbytes (GCR, 8Kbyte blocks)
Tape speed:	125 inch/sec
Data rate:	781 Kbytes/sec
Rewind speed:	440 ips
Rewind time:	65 secs (2,400 feet)
Power consumption:	3.7 kVA (max)
Size:	60"H x 26.5"W x 32"D
Weight:	630 lbs
Year Introduced:	1984

The TA79 Magnetic Tape Drive was a high-performance advanced big magnetic tape drive from DEC. It was a TU79 fitted with a TS78 tape formatter (instead of a TM78 formatter), which is a Standard Tape Interconnect (STI) controller. The TS78 can be mounted in a TU79 to produce a 'TA79 master'; a master can control up to three additional TU79 drives, 'TU79 slaves', or TU78 drives, 'TU78 slaves'. The TS78 is dual-ported, and can be connected to two different Hierarchical Storage Controllers.

It used 2400' 0.5" wide magnetic tape on a standard 10-1/2" reel, and supported 9-track operation at 1600 and 6250 BPI. The TA79 supports two data formats: Phase Encoding (PE) or Group Coded Recording (GCR). Bit density is 1600 bits per inch for the PE format and 6250 bits per inch for the GCR format. The drive can read data in forward as well as reverse direction. It provides pneumatic (vacuum) tape loading.

Further reading

• TA79,TU79 Magnetic Tape Subsystem Service Manual (EK-OTA79-SV)
• TA79,TU79 Magnetic Tape Subsystem Installation Manual (EK-OTA79-IN)
• TA79,TU79 Magnetic Tape Subsystem Owner's Manual (EK-OTA79-OM)

None online, apparently

External links

• TA79 - documentation at Bitsavers
  • TA79, TU79, TA78, TU78 Magnetic Tape Subsystem Technical Manual (EK-OTA79-TM-001)
• TA79 and TA81 Magnetic Tape Subsystems - brochure