Talk:Pertec Computer
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[edit] Background
Pertec Computer Corporation (PCC) started circa 1970 under the name of Peripherals Equipment Corporation (PEC), building incremental 7-track tape drives for use in mainframe computer systems.
By the early 1970's, the company had begun manufacturing 'synchronous' tape drives, i.e., instead of reel motors clicking forward and stopping after writing or reading blocks of data, the drive could 'stream' (continue running tape at full speed)during those operations provided the controlling computer could keep up with the data rate. This was accomplished by adding a third motor, the capstan motor, to drive the tape while the reel motors, in conjunction with position-sensing tension arms followed along.
In the mid-1970's numerous successful assembly lines had started up, including the D3000 series front- and top-loading disk drives, T7000 series, small reel-to-reel tape drives, T6000 and T8000 full-size reel-to reel drives and data formatters for interfacing with mainframe computers.
Forays into floppy-disk manufacturing were unsuccessful due to late entry into the market.
Acquisition of MITS,the manufacturer of the Altair computer based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor was also not successful also due to market timing issues.
At the same time, great successes were realized with the introduction of the T9000 series single vacuum column tape drive, the T1000 series dual vacuum column self-threading tape drive and the dual-format microformatter, which gave rise to what the industry now refers to the "Pertec Interface".
Building on the Pertec Interface and experience with thread-jet tape guidance and air pressure tape tensioning and bearing systems, Pertec introduced the Vindicator front-loading streaming (2 reel motors, no capstan motor) tape drive. Imitators soon followed and now this is the new industry standard for new system designs.
In the early 1980's, Pertec moved much of its manufacturing operations to Mexico from Chatsworth, CA, where the T1's and the new cartridge tape lines continued until operations eventually ceased due to sell-offs and a general industry downturn.
