1951-1968 Early Computer Magnetic Tape Units- History IBM, UNIVAC, RCA, AMPEX

1951-1968 Early Computer Magnetic Tape Units- History IBM, UNIVAC, RCA, AMPEX - Educational Video

Рет қаралды 65,985

Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")

6 жыл бұрын

If you enjoy our videos, PLEASE HELP US Preserve Technology History with a small contribution to our channel: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted...
Your contribution greatly helps! Thank you! ~ CHAP. -- An educational, hopefully enjoyable, brief look back at Early Computer Magnetic Tape Units (1951 to 1968). Vintage photos & film show a variety of early hardware, including IBM 726-729 Tape Units, IBM NORC, early AMPEX drives used by GE for ERMA, NCR and other systems. Also mentioned in the Gallery are Honeywell 800, Philco Transac, CDC 6600 and others. A Computer History Archives Project (CHAP) video production, production/editing, Mark Greenia.
Approx. 20 min overview and 6 minute Image Gallery.
Acknowledgements:
Sincere thanks to those who provided much needed valuable input to date.
Here are some Acknowledgements and Recommended References:
IBM ARCHIVES
www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/
SRI International Corporate History
www.sri.com/about/corporate-h...
Articles: General Electric Computer Dept. from the bottom up, 1961--1965, by Ed Thelen
www.ed-thelen.org/EarlyGE-Comp...
Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications & Computation, Ed Sharpe, Archivist
www.smecc.org/
VIP Club Information Technology Pioneers
www.VIPclubmn.org
Al Kossow’s Online Software Archive
www.Bitsavers.org
ATLAS Computer at Chilton, UK
www.chilton-computing.org.uk/a...
LEO Computers Society
www.leo-computers.org.uk/links...
Glenn’s Computer Museum
www.glennsmuseum.com/ibm/ibm.html
General Electric Company History
www.newworldencyclopedia.org/e...
MAG TAPE SPECIFIC REFERENCES:
DC Video (Conversions and Great Web Site),
www.dcvideo.com/videotape-ide...
Magnetic Tape Data Storage
wikivividly.com/wiki/Magnetic...
Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (Good info on AMPEX and others)
museumofmagneticsoundrecording...
AMPEX Corporate History
www.ampex.com/ampex-history/
KZfaq Video:
VIDEO: 1951 UNIVAC UNISERVO TAPE DRIVE - Computer History Archives Project, # CH-013
• Computer History: The...
Additional References:
Paper: “Fifty years of IBM innovation with information storage on magnetic tape,” by R. Bradshaw, C. Schroeder, Published in IBM Research and Development, Vol 47, No. 4, 2003
ibm-1401.info/history-of-tape.pdf
“Digital Magnetic Tape Recording Fundamentals,”
Training Manual, 1962, (originally by Ampex Corp.) worldpowersystems.com/J/magtap...
additional thanks to Jeff Quitney's vintage videos, KZfaq channel
/ webdev17
Professional Narration: David Melvin (GE Narration- Joel North)
Uploaded by Computer History Archives Project - CHAP
Click on the link below to see more Computer History Videos:
/ @computerhistoryarchiv...

Пікірлер: 97

@Pimp-Master 5 жыл бұрын

When I was told in the 60s, “this will be on your record,” they weren’t kidding. Millions and millions of dollars went into maintaining my record, so no wonder I couldn’t escape it.

@markarca6360 4 жыл бұрын

Tapes still exist today, and the dominant standard used today is the Linear Tape Open (8th Generation).

@craigjones3325 2 жыл бұрын

Depending on the particular category or classification of systems, the "dominant standard" differs widely. The current, "dominant" tape format used by most current or recently-current generation of mainframe systems is the IBM 3592 "Jaguar" Gen6 with a native capacity of 20TB. While the Jaguar Gen6 is the "latest" release of IBM 3592-series cartridge tape formats, the previous technologies, known as "Magstar" 3590, and the 3490 and 3480 families of cartridge tape formats, are still pervasive, particularly in large-scale enterprise tape libraries. Additionally, 9-track open reel tape in legacy formats is widely used, particularly when interchange between systems and manufacturers is involved, and of course millions of reels of 9-track and earlier 7-track open reel format tapes exist in archives and systems libraries around the world, maintained by mainframe systems managers and corporate archives. It's easy to make the mistake that LTO (and its predecessor, DLT) is the most commonly used, and therefore dominant, tape format or technology, and with the need for ever-increasing capacity for offline storage in the microcomputer and midrange systems market, LTO definitely has secured its niche for the time being. However, it is very important to note that with the drastic drop in prices of NAND flash memory, and the relatively inexpensive and easily managed tiered storage systems marketed by micro and midrange vendors such as Dell/EMC and others that build on SSD technology, virtual tape drives, virtual tape libraries, and NAND flash-based cartridge systems are rapidly gaining foothold where large and expensive to maintain, operate, and extend LTO and DLT mechanical libraries used to reign. Just my $0.02. :D

@lakeseminoleramblins8663 2 жыл бұрын

IRS system is still this old.

@marekkowalski6767 Жыл бұрын

@@craigjones3325 👍🇵🇱 Warsaw tnx.

@adrianschneider4441 3 жыл бұрын

Without those twitching tape reels, computers will never be the same...

@jamespriest7328 5 жыл бұрын

Great video! I would to go back to visit these times and use these computers.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 5 жыл бұрын

Hi James, thanks very much! I hope you will take a look at some of our other videos on this channel. Hopefully you will find some other vintage computer films that spark your interest as well. Thanks again! ~ Victor, CHAP

@dmitrykazakov2829 2 жыл бұрын

Programming IBM 360/370 was very uncomfortable. Assembly and JCL were nightmare. FORTRAN H was tolerable, but just. Later, with PL1 and IBM virtual machines things started to improve. But it was DEC PDP-11 when programming became fun. Though that happened much later.

@chuckcornelius194 3 жыл бұрын

26:18 wow, we never had an operator that looked like that

@matt.604 2 жыл бұрын

Her hairdo looks like a tape reel.

@TooManyHobbiesJeremy 6 жыл бұрын

Excellent use of clips & photos. Nice editing.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much. Glad you liked this video.

@TheresaJamone 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video. I found it a good resource for a college course presentation in Archives and Records Management. I cut my teeth on a reel-to-reel tape drive connected to the Digital VAX 750 way back in 1987 :-)

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Theresa! Thanks very much for your feedback! Glad you enjoyed this video history of Mag Tape Units. Hope you will explore some of our other vintage tech videos too. ~ Victor, CHAP

@MicrobyteAlan 6 жыл бұрын

Ah, memories. The sounds, the smells of a vintage computer room.

@RuggedBrotha 5 жыл бұрын

YESSSS! In the 60s we had Sears. Do remember the smell of nuts and popcorn? When I think of the smell of IBM Cards I think of old Sears. Im wierd. The smell of the oils. The smell of the paper and dust. And hole punchouts. The sound of fans and printers. The printers were as loud as 747s. Im only 54.

@renatoamaral8259 Жыл бұрын

Great film, finely produced.

@petrofilmeurope Жыл бұрын

Excellent video, much work - appreciated. Thank you.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@dneumet Жыл бұрын

I like how some of those console operators sat in front of hundreds of buttons and they press button after button seemingly without rhyme or reason. One has to wonder if most of those buttons did absolutely nothing or if the action was just playing to the camera.

@miguelferreiramoutajunior2475 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 5 жыл бұрын

Miguel Ferreira Mouta Junior, you're welcome. Glad you tuned in. - Victor

@josephgaviota Жыл бұрын

Oh, how many of those old mag tapes I've loaded and unloaded. When I was doing it, they were either 800 bpi or 1600 bpi ... 6250 bpi was only for "fancy" system, which we didn't have.

@VICTORHUGO1860 4 жыл бұрын

Eccellent ! Excellent !

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 4 жыл бұрын

VictorHugo1860, thank you, much appreciated.

@markarca6360 4 жыл бұрын

The Bizmac and the RCA 701 are early implementationd of a SAN (storage area network), particularly tape libraries.

@sficca 5 жыл бұрын

Very nice. Well worth the time to watch. Thank you for making this. Ending it with, “EOF”!! LOL!!!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 5 жыл бұрын

Hi John, thanks very much for your kind words. Yes, EOF, is something only the "old timers" and dedicated computer pro's will understand. You passed! ~ thanks again! - Mark, CHAP

@markarca6360 4 жыл бұрын

End of file.

@OldDogNewTrick 3 жыл бұрын

@@markarca6360 I knew that!

@rjugel 2 жыл бұрын

@ewaf88 Жыл бұрын

And there from around 8 minutes are glimpses of the Time Tunnel computer that popped up just about everywhere in science fiction series

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Irwin Allen, he used lots of old computers as props. He probably had them in his garage too. : )

@ewaf88 Жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Yes I've no doubt - anything with flashing lights could double as an advanced alien device. Incidentally there was a graphics computer display featured in the 1965 film - Brainstorm ( not the 1981 film by Doug Trumbell ) starring Jeffrey Hunter. Any idea what system this was as it may have been the first feature film to show computer graphics, if you discount the fantasy toy designing machine from the film Babes in Toyland. Anyway thanks for the very interesting film

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

You are very welcome! ~ Victor

@lesliethomas5845 8 ай бұрын

Pretty fascinating , at least for a research nerd like me....altho the various specifications / capacity details go over my head a bit. My own specialty field is in a few spoken/ written (human) languages. Anyway, I wanted to express astonishment about two items described. One: I hadnt been aware that in depth, continuous operations computer systems were being adapted, so early as the early 1950s. Two: amazed that a semi mechanically based system can process the data from 250 cards a minute !!! I believe (?) that is the statement I heard during the first several moments of this presentation.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 8 ай бұрын

Yes, some early machines were fast at processing card data, but there was not much data on an individual punch card. The mechanics of moving parts for cards and tape reels could eventually not keep up any where close to the processor's demand for data. And they made the computer room somewhat loud too. ~ good observations! Thanks. VK CHAP

@bt410382 9 ай бұрын

26:26 beautiful tape drive

@transitengineer 21 күн бұрын

I prefer the keyboard input device and computer paper pint-out machine at 23:50 (smile ... smile).

@MasterMindmars 4 жыл бұрын

Very good

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 4 жыл бұрын

MasterMindmars, thank you! ~ Victor, CHAP

@ESDI80 3 жыл бұрын

I sometimes wish I was born a few decades earlier as computer systems seemed to be much more interesting and challenging than they are today. Being a hardware guy, I would have loved to work on the mini and micros of the 70s and 80s. I tend to deal more with software / program issues ore than hardware issues these days.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 3 жыл бұрын

Hi ESD180, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I can certainly understand the feeling. ~ VK, CHAP

@CandyBimatic 2 жыл бұрын

I worked for some time on a Honeywell 66/05 mainframe bought in 1968 and discontinued in 1992. Believe me that you would get tired of maintaining such a machine... I remember the routine maintenamce of disc units (10 discs pack) between cleaning and mechanical settings it was a nightmare and there were 8 of those units, each big as 4 washing machines altogether... the tape units were less critical about maintenance... then there were high speed printers, flashlight disc scanners to be taken care of and the processor units, disc and tape drivers unit were also to be dusted and have routine maintenance to be done and routine tests were altogether a lot of work! However when it was doscontinued I couldn't see it scrapped so I tranferred it to my garage... and it's still there because I don't have "the heart" to get rid of it even if it will never be possible to bring it back to life after being "resting" unused for almost 30 years.

@daveridgeway2639 Жыл бұрын

Very informative video! After watching the video, I went to one of my Star Trek: The Original Series DVD sets and watched Tomorrow Is Yesterday; Season 1, Episode 19 "for about the 50th time anyway" just to refresh my memory, and see the AMPEX computer tape reels as a efference. You see, I'm 62 years old. Please respond. Dave...

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Hi Dave, thank you very much for your comment and info. Did you also see our video posting of Star Trek, Journey to Ampex? Here is a link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d9yPZ5eSnbHMgqc.html Perhaps you might enjoy. Thanks!

@daveridgeway2639 Жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I just watched it! Thank you! Dave...

@user-vp3jr2wo4t 2 жыл бұрын

なつかしいですね、私は日本人ですが、昔IBMのコンピュータの保守を教育を受け、全国の機械を、修理してきました、とてもなつかしい動画をありがとうございます。

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked the video. Thank you very much for your feedback! ~ Victor

@UQRXD 2 жыл бұрын

My desk top can do more then a room full of that old tech. I did back up on tape drive a cartridge type, it took a long time for daily back up.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, and if memory serves, cartridge tape back ups were not always reliable when it came to retrieval time. They could only be used so many times before tape wear degraded the recording capability. You're right, it took a long time for daily backups... Thanks ! ~ VK, CHAP

@rjugel 2 жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Also, not many know that the 727 200 BPI tape drives on the 705 had no read check after doing a write .... so if you had a write error you wouldn't know about it until you tried to read that tape in a subsequent run. Not good if it was a generational master file tape and if you were updating the master file and hit the error you would have to go back and rerun the previous master file maintenance run. A real pain. We had two 705s and towards the end of their lives we couldn't schedule a sort that ran two hours or more because they were almost certain to blow a tube. Then we'd have to find the tube, replace it, and start the sort all over again.

@kumpelskijeden4442 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Anybody knows the title of the disco music played by 20:12? Thanks in advance :)

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 5 жыл бұрын

Its called "Funky Element" by Bensound.com. Nice tune. Thanks!

@kumpelskijeden4442 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! :)

@WalnutSpice 2 ай бұрын

I would love to know more about the general maintenance of these tape drives ran at high speed in what seems like an otherwise typical Reel 2 Reel form factor. I still use compact cassettes at home with most of my music recorded to blanks, and I know how much I need to clean my head, capstan and keep good condition rollers with that, and that's with good low rub off 1990s and later tape stock. The maintenance for these must have been insane, and it makes me wonder about error checking/ handling of misread data from a dirty or possibly worn head

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 21 сағат бұрын

Yes, maintenance was a serious issue. Tapes could stretch over time, and were sensitive to temperature changes, humidity, and so on. The IBM manuals for the operation of the drives had some cautions for operators to be aware of. The later machines became much more reliable too.

@kae4466 5 жыл бұрын

so, were any of these various tape drives interchangeable or were they only limited to their particular setup? thanks in advance .

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 5 жыл бұрын

Hi kae4466, That's an excellent question. From what I have researched, many equipment vendors tried to make their tape systems downward compatible with previous equipment. For example, the UNISERVO II tape units from Remington Rand UNIVAC could read the older metal tapes as well as the newer Mylar tapes. Also, some non-IBM vendors learned that if they made their tape machines and computers compatible with IBM tape units, they could often obtain additional sales, by marketing to IBM customers. However, there were instances of tape drives and formats being specific to a certain computer, especially in late 1950's early 1960's. I do not know how much tape format compatibility there was between big vendors such as GE, Honeywell, IBM, RCA, etc. Also, as an interesting trivia point, many tape drives were made by AMPEX company and re-labeled by one of the big computer makers. Hope this helps! thanks... Mark

@andrewgrillet5835 5 жыл бұрын

The 1/2" tape systems mostly used "IBM compatible" formats. The tape drives were start-stop: the drive would go from a standing start to speeds up to 125 inches per second, write a block, and then stop - hence the jerks you see when they are in action. The vacuum loop was needed to allow the drive to stop from 125"/sec and then start again in an inter-block gap of 1 7/8". Block sizes (ie number of chars in a block) was normally defined as the number of punch card images in a block - typically, this would be 20. It was normally possible to read 7-track tapes on 9-track drives. It was not always easy to do do it. The bit patterns might not mean the same thing. I once used an ICL computer to read tapes written on on an IBM 360 as binary, and then write them out to tapes for reading by a CDC7600. As far as hardware connection was concerned, there were several competing standards provided by various manufacturers. However, a lot of manufacturers supported competitive manufacturer's interfaces by replacing one or more 15" square circuit boards (obviously, after PCBs were used). Manufacturers like Ampex and Data Dynamics would support IBM, CDC, DEC, etc's interfaces. Towards the end of this period you could buy third party interfaces, and even SCSI interfaces for the drives. I built an interface for a BBC Micro to a Data Dynamics interface, and designed a SCSI tape interface for the Apple ][ as well as products for some of the mainframes listed here. I still use 1/2" tape in the form of LTO cartridges with SCSI interfaces to modern PCs.

@User0000000000000004 5 жыл бұрын

LAWL! I use Bensound for my PBX.

@frankowalker4662 4 жыл бұрын

I was doing CS in Uni mid 80's. Was being taught how to use an IBM tape machine from the early 70's. Got in a blazing row with the tutor over how obsolete it all was, and theres no point learning about it. He said 'It would NEVER be replaced and everybody should know how to use them for future employment!'. I was kicked out of Uni for unruly behaviour and a bad attitude. LOL.

@patrickmusson4571 Жыл бұрын

The Star Trek: The Original Series "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" episode is Episode 19 of Season 1, not Episode 21.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Hi Patrick, yes, you are correct, based on the original numbering. However, if one looks at the VHS copy of the series, it seems they called it episode 21. Episode 19 is more correct. Thank you for pointing this out.

@exp_5110 2 жыл бұрын

can I switch the language and upload it on KZfaq?

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Hi Exp 007, thank you for your question. Would rather not have this re-uploaded by anyone due to the copyright on this particular video. A lot of creative work went into this one and would like to keep it intact. (curious, what language are you looking for? ) ~ CHAP

@DaimlerSleeveValve 2 жыл бұрын

26:06 - Self loading collars! My operating system development tapes had these, carefully set up with the pointed and crimped leader on the tape. They worked perfectly every time, except for the operators ignoring my LARGE PRINT labels, removing them and putting greasy fingers on the tapes as they threaded them manually.

@ArneRagnarsson 2 жыл бұрын

I could go to the library and borrow a book.

@jcarieri5435 2 жыл бұрын

I guess "high speed" is all relative

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Exactly!

@hoodedcreeper2465 Жыл бұрын

I'm curious how much one of those things would be worth nowadays

@TheAnubis57 3 жыл бұрын

I would love to know what happened to all this computer machinery, control panels, card readers, tape drives, etc. I would love to have at least one tape drive cabinet.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi TheAnubis57, sadly, much went into landfills, but some great equipment ended up saved by institutions like The Computer Museum at Mountain View, California; the Smithsonian Institution, DC; the Living Computer Museum; Computer Museums in Germany and UK, etc. A lot of the early IBM SAGE equipment was bought up by Hollywood movie prop companies, and used in many films over the year. ~ Hunter, CHAP

@pondoknira117 Жыл бұрын

21k Berguna untuk menyimpan tegangan bukan tutupnya sinyal analog

@kdkatz-ef2us 3 жыл бұрын

For me, the greatest advance happened in 1980, with the elimination of the f-ing punch cards! Suddenly my job got much easier feeding floppy disks into the system instead of thousands of stupid cards.

@jrgboy 2 жыл бұрын

I remember the old punch cards, I used to load thousands & if there was 3 errors the program used to crash & I had to start over...

@Geffers58 2 жыл бұрын

By the time I was a programmer, in 1977, we used punch cards only for job control and small changes to code. But when the external auditors came in they brought attache cases full of test code on cards. And they always had exotic colours, like orange and pink, ah how I envied them those cards, and us with the dull white ones.

@jcarieri5435 2 жыл бұрын

Imagine You Tube running on this stuff. lol

@oldhongkong565 2 жыл бұрын

The narrative has done whatever it takes to skip the word defense

@americaneclectic 4 жыл бұрын

Three megabites per tape reel! Bwahaha!

@markarca6360 4 жыл бұрын

Now we have 30 terabytes (Linear Tape Open, 8th Generation)

@pondoknira117 Жыл бұрын

4km Cassette tape sebenarnya magnetic bukan tutupnya analog

@jrgboy 2 жыл бұрын

The first computer I used here in the UK was a KDF9 made by English Electrics , I have been told it in the Science Museum in London, it was huge & used magnetic & paper tape, there is more computing power in a cheap digital watch than this machine had...

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Jrgboy, thanks for your comment! I was not aware of the KDF9 machine, but now that you mentioned it, I did some research online. Fascinating machine! English Electrics has an interesting history too. It must have been a fun machine to be associated with! Thanks! ~ VK, CHAP

@scp3178 2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting. Thanks. Why don't such documentary videos never (rarely) mention those hardware's prices. I'd be very interesting.

@alammd4673 Жыл бұрын

😜

@philippeters9264 Жыл бұрын

IBM mass store

@MartinZanichelli 4 жыл бұрын

24:50 Girl is thinking "Which of these things could be a dishwasher.....let´s see.....dishwasher.......They look more like washing machines for clothes......"