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The Kansas Metropolis normal was a broadly adopted knowledge storage protocol within the early days of microcomputers and private computer systems. It was developed by a gaggle of lovers and professionals within the late Seventies and gained reputation all through the Nineteen Eighties. The protocol was primarily used for storing and transferring knowledge on cassette tapes, which have been generally used as a storage medium throughout that period.

These cassette-based storage gadgets have been gradual, with switch charges of 300 bits per second, and so they have been restricted to sequential knowledge entry — sooner random entry was not attainable. They have been additionally notoriously unreliable, with the binary ones and zeros encoded by totally different audio frequencies usually failing to register accurately. Even components like the amount stage that the tape participant was set to may make the distinction between an excellent knowledge load or a failure.

It’s exhausting to say something very optimistic about cassette-based storage, even with the nice and cozy glow of nostalgia amplifying the nice reminiscences from these early days of computing. Their solely saving grace was their value. In these days, when kilobytes of reminiscence value a whole bunch, and even hundreds of {dollars}, and a tough disk was out of attain for many house customers, the common-or-garden cassette participant supplied a significantly better choice than typing a program again in each time the pc was powered up.

Due to the recognition of this storage methodology, there’s a number of software program nonetheless on the market on cassette tapes. And for retrocomputing lovers, particularly those who delve into constructing their very own retro laptop, that may imply needing to construct a posh circuit to decode audio and translate it right into a binary illustration. That may be a enjoyable train, to make sure, however typically you simply desire a prebuilt answer.

Greg Strike from The Curious Place has not too long ago launched an electronics equipment referred to as the KCS Combine Tape that fills this want very properly. After soldering a number of chips and a handful of passive parts onto a cassette tape-shaped PCB, the KCS Combine Tape can settle for a stream of audio, and convert it right into a stream of serial and parallel binary knowledge concurrently.

After assembling the board, there’s a fast calibration course of that’s required. Taking part in an audio file that produces a recognized knowledge sample, then adjusting a trim resistor to make sure that the sample is being represented accurately on the onboard LEDs, will get the KCS Combine Tape prepared for service. After that, both the serial or parallel knowledge traces may be related to your individual circuit, and you can begin loading knowledge like it’s 1979.

The equipment may be helpful for loading knowledge from cassette tapes, however additionally it is instructional. As you construct the system, you’ll acquire a greater understanding of what made classic computer systems tick. If you wish to decide up a KCS Combine Tape of your individual, they’re accessible at The Curious Place retailer for $50. All the pieces crucial to construct the tape decoder is included in the usual equipment.The Curious Place’s KCS Combine Tape (📷: Greg Strike)

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