Tape Couplers

Overview

This page discusses the available LSI-11 tape couplers. These modules provide an interface between a tape subsystem and the Q-bus. The respective couplers were considered part of the subsystem, rather than a discrete component.

The table below contains a comparison of different tape couplers available.

Module Number	M7196	M7546	M7559	M7605
Model Number	TSV05	TK50	TK70	TK25
Introduced	1981	1985	1986	1984
Discontinued
Board Size	Quad	Dual	Dual	Quad
Q-bus Address Size	22-bits	22-bits	22-bits	22-bits
DMA Capable	yes	yes	yes	yes
Protocol	TS11	TMSCP	TMSCP
Interface	Pertec	RS-422	RS-422
Tape Format	Reel-to-Reel	DLT	DLT	QIC
Tape Width (in.)	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.25
Tape Length (ft.)	2400¹	600	600	600
Tracks	9	22	48	11
Speed (ips)	25/100	75	100	55
Density (bpi)	1600	6667	10000	8000
Capacity (MB)	44¹	94	296	61
Transfer Rate (Bps)	40,000/160,000	500,025	1,000,000	440,000
AC Bus Load
DC Bus Load
+5V Load
+12V Load

¹ Maximum.

Summary

Much like mechanical disk drives, tape drives wear out over time and and their media are becoming less common. Hardware emulators could, and have been built, to replace Pertec-compatible drives, making Pertec couplers the most useful. One of these would allow operating systems to be installed from tape files, and existing backup programs to continue to be used.

References

TSV05 Tape Transport Subsystem User's Guide, 3rd Edition, December 1985 (EK-TSV05-UG-003)
TK50 Tape Drive Subsystem Technical Manual, 2nd Edition, July 1986 (EK-OTK50-TM-002)
TK70 Streaming Tape Drive Owner's Manual, 1st Edition, July 1987 (EK-OTK70-OM-001)
TK70 Field Maintenance Print Set, August 1987 (MP02294-01)
Edited Option/Module List, June 13, 1991 (OL0501.0DP)

Additional Resources

MicroNote 3 - Compatible Bootstraps for the LSI-11/73
MicroNote 5 - Q22 Compatible Options
MicroNote 15 - Q-Bus Hardware Bootstraps
MicroNote 41 - Device Ordering Chart for Q-bus Systems

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