TMB11 drawings?

Noel Chiappa jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Thu Sep 15 15:42:04 CDT 2016


    > From: Al Kossow 

    >  http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102753063

Ah, excellent! Any chance those can be scanned at some point?

(No rush, I'm not about to start working with one instantly - too much else
backed up in the queue! :-)

    >> I saw some queries about whether a TU10 could be connected to a TMB11.
    >> The answer is apparently 'yes', for two reasons:
    >> First, I found docs on a thing called a TMA11 (apparently intermediate
    >> between the TM11 and TMB11), and one version of the docmentation about
    >> it talks about the TMA11 and the TU10, but another version talks about
    >> the TMA11 and the TS03. So, by transitivity, if the TU10 works with a
    >> TMA11, and a TMA11 works with a TS03, and the TS03 works with a TMB11,
    >> the TMB11 must work with a TU10...
    >> Second, I have a report of a TU10 found plugged into a TMB11 in a
    >> retired computer.

    > the TMB11 is a special widget for the small Kennedy 7" 800bpi tape drive

That's the TS03, right?

Anyway, there are indications (above) that it will also work with a TU10. If
the TMB11 prints get scanned in, I can take a look them, and see what gives.

Further (third) clue: the TMB11 Ops manual says "The TS03 tape transport
operates at only one density (800 bpi) and iin only one mode of operation (9
track). The TMB11 is capable of other densities and can operate in the
7-track .. modes." I expect this is to support these modes in the TU10...

I originally thought the TB11 was TS03-specific, but after reviewing all the
above, I have changed my mind. Having the drawings would be great; I could
check them out to confirm that it really can drive a TU10.


    > we do have the TMA11 drwngs

Also excellent! The TM11 ones are online, but not (AFAIK) the TMA11. So if
that could get done at some point, too... :-)

The two are very similar (a 19" rack backplane full of smaller FLIP CHIPs),
so it's not like the RK11-C -> RK11-D, where they re-implemented it to make
it cheaper. I'm _guessing_ the latter one can handle 1600 bpi, or some such,
but with the prints, the difference could be confirmed.


    > From: Henk Gooijen

    > IIRC, I have the printset of the TMB11 and ISTR it is one inch thick!

Hmm. No idea why - it's only a quad card and a hex card and 4 smaller
standard UNIBUS FLIP CHIPs (M105, M7821, etc). Hard to see that generating 1"
of paper (even with the wire list for the custom backplane - a hex-high
system unit).

Maybe that set includes the TS03 drawings too?

	Noel


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