Tri-Data CartriFile (1968 – mid 1970s) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)

The Tri-Data 1000-series of CartriFile cartridges was introduced in 1968 for use in the CartriFile 40 tape drive that was used for magnetic tape storage for minicomputers such as the DEC PDP-8.

Each CartriFile tape cartridge contains an endless loop of ¼-inch magnetic tape of different length depending on the cartridge model. These ranged from 10 feet in the 1010 cartridge to 150 feet in the 1150 cartridge. The CartriFile 40 tape drive allowed up to four tapes to be used at once and using four 1150 tapes could provide up to 2.88 MB of storage.

Because the tape was in an endless loop, a reflective end-of-tape marker was used to indicate the beginning of the loop. Like other endless-loop tapes, rewinding was not possible.

Tapes came with a built-in write-protect switch, and the tape was protected by a cover that was retracted by the user before inserting the tape in the drive.

As well as the 1000 series of cartridges, the 2000 series for use on the CartriFile 4096 tape unit contained two tape loops per cartridge.

A later version of the CartriFile 40 was the CartriFile 211 launced in 1973, which contained two slots for 1000-series tape cartridges, along with a hard drive offering 312.5 KB.

A 1972 advert for the CartriFile system claimed that a thousand had been sold since 1968, but they don’t seem to have lasted beyond the mid-1970s and they would have faced competition from DECtape.

Sources / Resources