TU80 Tape Transport

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Revision as of 23:44, 10 January 2022 by Jnc (talk | contribs) (Jnc moved page TU80 to TU80 magtape drive: Follow naming system)
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TU80
Manufacturer: DEC (vendor)
CDC (contractor)
Media: standard half-inch tape, 2400 ft. maximum
Tape density: 1600 bpi
Tape speed: 100 inch/sec (streaming) or 25 inch/sec (start/stop)


TU80

The TU80 was a manually-loaded nine-track magnetic tape drive sold by DEC for the PDP-11 and VAX computers.

It was manufactured for DEC by Computer Peripherals, Inc. (CPI) of Morristown, Pennsylvania. CPI was a subsidiary of Control Data Corporation (CDC), which besides being a computer manufacturer themselves also provided peripherals and storage components for other vendors.

The TU80 appears to have been controlled by a Motorola 6802 processor, a variant of the 6800 with 128 bytes of internal RAM and an internal clock oscillator. There were also five 6821 Parallel Interface Adapter chips for interfacing to the various parts of the bus and operator panel etc. The firmware was stored in an 8KB ROM chip.