PC04/PC05 High-Speed Paper-Tape Reader/Punch
The PC04 and PC05 Paper-Tape Reader/Punches are the DEC-supplied paper tape peripherals for the PDP-8 and PDP-11 respectively (the '05s were also used by the PDP-12 and PDP-15).
The mechanical portions are the same in the '04 and '05, but they differ in the control electronics included in them. Both include an electro-mechanical punch, and a photo-electric reader, which are completely separate, but housed in the same frame, and sharing a power supply.
There is also a backplane to hold the control electronics, in the form of a number of FLIP CHIPs. The backplane in the PC04 has 8 slots; that in the PC05 has 12 slots. (In addition, there is also a controller in the computer.)
Variants
There are a myriad of different versions, particularly in the '04. To start with, there are two generations of each: in the former, input data is strobed during reading by a signal from the stepper motor; the later strobes the data by sensing the feed holes.
There are also reader-only and punch-only versions: the reader-punch version of the PC04 is the PC04B, the reader-only version is the PR04R, and the punch-only version is the PC04P; the reader-punch version of the PC05 is the PC05C, the reader-only version is the PR05R, and the punch-only version is the PC05P.
Finally, there are different versions of the PC04 for different PDP-8 models, which differ as to which FLIP CHIPs are used; these will be covered below.
