What's magtape good for anyway?

[Tim Shoppa]

> > How much data can magtape hold?  If magtape was a portable media,
> > does that mean that the manufacturers agreed on the width of
> > the tape, the density of recording, the method of recording bits,
> > etc.?
> 
> Yes to all of those, though there are three standard recording densities
> (80bpi, 1600bpi, 6250bpi) and several recording methods (NRZ, NRZI, PE, etc).

But in the 9-track world at least, 800 BPI was always NRZI, 1600 BPI
(and 3200 BPI) was always PE, and 6250 BPI was always a specific type
of GCR.  

In the 7-track world, recording was almost always NRZI.  One manufacturer
did make a 7-track PE system, but it was never a standard.

Tim.

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