On 8/21/2021 3:44 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
On Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 1:49 PM Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

     > From: Bill Degnan

     > Was there a UNIBUS storage system that used a cassette player as the
     > storage device .., rigged to send receive signals via a serial card
     > connection.

Yes and no. There is the TA11 Magnetic Tape Cassette System, which used the
TU60 Dual DECasette Transport (I need to create a page for that in the
CHWiki), but it uses a special controller card, the TA11 Magnetic Tape
Cassette controller:

   https://gunkies.org/wiki/TA11_Magnetic_Tape_Cassette_controller

There is a small cheap tape system which used a stock serial interface to
talk
to the computer, the TU58, but those used DECtpe-II cartridges, not
standard
casettes.

         Noel


Thanks Noel.  I suppose if it was done it was a hack/not official system.
Bill


There were third party cassette systems, typically using some kind of digital cassette format, that you could hook up with a terminal. One was made by Sykes that I played with once upon a time:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/sykes/brochures/Sykes_3000_Cassete_Brochure.pdf

But not UNIBUS - it was just a standard serial port thing, not tied to any particular computer system.

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