[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Paul Sture]

On 2018-08-28, Bob Koehler <koehler at eisner.nospam.decuserve.org> wrote:
> In article <pls6hv$hnd$1 at panix2.panix.com>, kludge at panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:
>> 
>> If you have to get data off gapless tape today, the best (but not very fast)
>> solution is to use the same type of incremental drive that was used to create
>> the tapes.  For the most part these were lower bit density (300, 556, or 800)
>> than computer tapes.
>> 
>
>    Try keeping up with 76Mb/second raw data source.  Our tapes had to be
>    much higher density than that.
>

I don't know the actual data rates, but in the geological examples I was
looking at, the data gathering process involved laying out a network of
microphones and then letting off some dynamite, to record the various
echos from the land beneath.  This could be either on land or over water.

Perhaps the data logging device was more analogue than digital. probably
depending on the technology available at the time.

-- 
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt.                 -- Bertrand Russell