Actual users of paper tape

From: McFadden, Mike <mmcfadden_at_cmh.edu>
Date: Fri Jan 5 10:53:45 2001

I have actually worked for three companies where paper tape was actually
used every day. The nice thing about paper tape is that you can visually
inspect the output and know what was on it. There were commonly two ways to
store it, fan folded or rolled.
1. 1974 when I worked in a microbiology lab the SMAC Automated
chemistry analyzers produced paper tape that contained the results from the
blood chemistry results. The paper tape was then fed into a IBM 360/50
where the lab reports were generated. The reports compared the individual
patients results to the predicted normal ranges. The real experts could
patch/splice paper tape to correct a result or for a repeat. They didn't
run the IBM 360/50 at night while the lab samples were processed. Each
analyzer had its own ASR-33.
2. 1975 graduate school, where the PDP 8's were booted by toggling in
through the front panel the bootstrap loader and then the actual OS was
loaded via paper tape read on an Teletype ASR-33.
3. 1978 McDonnell-Douglas where the programs loaded into individual
missiles were punched onto Mylar paper tape and a copy stored in a vault for
positive verification of the program that was loaded.

Mike
mmcfadden_at_cmh.edu
Received on Fri Jan 05 2001 - 10:53:45 GMT