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 models: the reader-punch model of the PC04 is the PC04B, the reader-only model is the PR04R, and the punch-only model is the PC04P; the reader-punch model of the PC05 is the PC05C, the reader-only model is the PR05R, and the punch-only model is the PC05P. All come in 50Hz and 60Hz versions (which are identical except for the punch pulley).
Finally, there are different versions of the PC04 for different PDP-8 models (they differ as to which FLIP CHIPs are used, which will be given below):
- PC04-B, PC04-C - PDP-8, PDP-8/S (also the KA10)
- PC04-BB - PDP-8/I
- PC04-BL - PDP-8/E, PDP-8/F, PDP-8/L, PDP-8/M
There is also a special version of the reader/punch model for the KI10, the PC04-CL. (The 50Hz versions of all of these differ in the last letter, which is incremented; e.g. the KI10 50Hz version is the -CM.)
