Template talk:Magnetic tape data formats

4 = 3.8?
Anyone know why the Four millimeter tape is only 3.8 millimeters? — Jfing e  r s  88  23:21, 14 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I got the spec from the Digital Data Storage page. —Austin Murphy 21:18, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * In 1972 there were a few systems that used a 0.150" tape cartridge, 3M/Scotch DC-150A. DECtapeII, HP85, and maybe others. http://www.athana.com/html/minicart.html —Austin Murphy 20:05, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

There is no difference between "eighth inch" and "four millimeter" tape. Both types are derived from standard cassette tape width, which is only nominally one eighth inch wide, but is actually 0.150 inches or 3.81 mm wide. --Blainster 16:26, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

First library?
First library??? IBM Tractor Tape —Austin Murphy 15:34, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Change the layout a bit?
Anybody mind if I play with the layout, maybe change the header to use tnavbar so it can be hidden, and edited easily? Like IT giants —Wikibarista 09:27, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
 * That's a good idea. -- Austin Murphy 14:20, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Current formatting makes the table really unreadable to me. It's a crowd of anybody-ever-heard-of-it formats and it is so hard for a reader to spot the popular and important formats (like LTO). Should it be aimed at tape history maniacs or maybe at readers that would like to learn something useful? Tell me if this list of american citizens is useful: Byron Brown, Susan Buczak, Elizabeth Bunich, Colleen Bush, George Bush, Randy Bushover, Michael Buyer. --Kubanczyk 12:36, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

New Formats
These formats need wikipages
 * ~2.5 mm -helical - Datasonix Pereos - 1 GB compressed, powered by 2x AA batteries, connected to Parallel port. Slow and bad reputation  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Austinmurphy (talk • contribs) 18:26, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
 * 3.81 mm - linear - DDP (1983) - part of the Coleco ADAM
 * 6.35 mm - linear - Irwin Magnetics EzTape - proprietary Quarter Inch format.

These are "Instrumentation" formats and probably do not belong on the "data" template:
 * 19 mm - helical - Ampex DIS (DD-2)
 * 25.4 mm - transverse scan - Ampex DCRsi

New Layout
I changed the layout so it uses the Navbox template. I copied the look of Template:Video storage formats. I'm moderately satisfied with the results. I wish there was a Navbox template that had groups and columns. -- Austin Murphy (talk) 14:35, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Discontinued formats in italic?
I was wondering, whether it would make sense to have all discontinued formats in italic, and all formats that aren't, in regular, upright variant. I'm not quite sure how to add a note to the end of the template, a line or so, that'd explain that italicized formats are discontinued. Int 80h (talk) 08:02, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

TI Wafertape?
TI came up with an adaptation of Stringy Floppy called Wafertape in 1983. Compact Computer 40 mentions it, and I have in my possession several manilla folders of source materials of how they adapted it. I would call it a descendent based on the work that they did on it, because it wasn't a straight adaptation. They changed quite a bit about the hardware (power savings to make it run batteries), etc. I also have several actual prototype units, so I really think we should put it in here. Thoughts? Acadiel (talk) 14:59, 7 November 2022 (UTC)