DECtape

DECtape is a magnetic tape data storage medium developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the mid-1960s for use with its minicomputers, notably the PDP series. The system consists of magnetic tape recorded on a 1/2-inch wide tape housed in a compact cartridge, which could be loaded into a dedicated DECtape drive. The cartridge-based design aimed to combine the capacity of tape with the ease of use of a removable media format.

Data on DECtape is organized in fixed-length blocks, allowing relatively fast access to specific records compared with continuous reel-to-reel tapes. The drives use a dual-reel mechanism and servo-controlled read/write heads to move to and read from a desired block, offering near-random access for certain workloads. This made DECtape a convenient medium for software development, operating system bootstraps, and data interchange between DEC systems, in addition to routine storage tasks.

Over time, DEC released higher-capacity media and refinements under the DECtape II line. The original DECtape gradually declined in prominence during the late 1970s and 1980s as floppy disks and hard disks became more economical and capable. Nevertheless, DECtape is remembered as an influential cartridge-based magnetic tape technology and a notable step in the evolution of accessible, block-oriented storage during the minicomputer era.