On Mon, 18 Jan 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
> > I like the mylar paper tape idea. Although I cannot imagine how much tape I
> > would need to hold a 128K byte flash image. Wait a minute, let me get some
> > tape here .... 10 bytes/in so 13,107" or 1092' or roughly 11 100' rolls.
> > That is a lot of tape and that is only the BIOS!
>
> The big reels of paper tape are 1000 feet, I think. One reel is about
> 100K of data. I've punched 80K files onto a single reel of tape, for example.
Consider that the Dead Sea scrolls lasted 2000+ years. They were stored
inside clay containers in a cave in a dry climate. By actually trying to
we could probably create a self-contained perpetual preservation
chamber that could probably achieve at least that.
So why bother with punched tape? Can't one get a much higher density with
optical-mark encoded paper documents?
Sure the reader will have to be more complex but unless we manage to
annihilate ourselves in the next 100 years we should have the technology
to put together an optical mark reader.
Paper will last longer than anything we've been discussing so far (save
for Mylar) but is much, much easier, and cheaper, to implement.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun Jan 17 1999 - 21:41:22 GMT