(This is a mirror from swtpc.org [archive.org], which itself is a mirror from BYTE Magazine. Minor formatting changes have been introduced.)
BYTE's Audio Cassette Standards Symposium
Written by Manfred and Virgina Peschke
BYTE, Feb 1976, Pages 72 and 73
BYTE Magazine sponsored a symposium on November 7 and 8, 1975 in Kansas City MO regarding the interchange of data on inexpensive consumer quality audio cassette drives.
These drives may be used as one of the mass storage devices in the first generation of personal computers, and will retain importance for some time to come as a means of interchange of software between computer enthusiasts who purchase products of the small systems industry.
In order to promote the growth of the industry, BYTE sought to achieve an industry standard on audio cassette data interchange through a working conference.
We extend our greatest appreciation to the 18 people who worked very hard until late Friday night and Saturday morning to discuss the multitude of problems and solutions associated with digital recording on auto cassettes. The names of the participants are listed in Table 1.
In spite of the short time available, the participants were able to draft a set of provisional standards which seems to promise great reliability and is rather inexpensive to implement; implementations may be entirely in hardware, or may require a mix of software and some minimal hardware.
Considerations were given to the problems of speed variation among recorders and playback equipment, start and stop delays, recording density (or speed) versus reliability, and recording frequencies to avoid interference with the telephone network in case some users plan to transmit the tones of the cassette over the phone lines.
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Felsenstein and Mr. Mauch volunteered to write up the consensus among the participants as to a provisional standard which has been reproduced below.
Provisional Audio Cassette Data Interchange Standard
The consensus among the participants of the audio cassette standards symposium at Kansas City MO sponsored by BYTE Magazine is as follows:
Table 1: Participants at Audio Cassette Symposium.
Ray Borrill | 1218 Prairie Dr, Bloomington IN |
Hal Chamberlin | The Computer Hobbyist, P 0 Box 5985, Raleigh NC 27607 |
Tom Durston | MITS, 6328 Linn NE, Albuquerque NM |
Lee Felsenstein | LGC Engineering, 1807 Delaware St, Berkeley CA 94703 |
Joe Frappier | Mikra-D, 32 Maple St, Bellingham MA |
Bill Gates | MITS |
Gary Kay | Southwest Technical Products Corp, 219 W Rhapsody, San Antonio TX 78216 |
Bob Marsh | Processor Technology, 2465 Fourth St, Berkeley CA 94710 |
Harold A Mauch | Pronetics, 4021 Windsor, Garland TX 75042 |
Bob Nelson | PCM, San Ramon CA |
George Perrine | HAL Communications Corp, Box 365, Urbana IL 61801 |
Ed Roberts | MITS |
Richard Smith | The Computer Hobbyist, P 0 Box 5882, Raleigh NC 27607 |
Les Solomon | Popular Electronics, 1 Park Av, New York NY 10016 |
Michael Stolowitz | Godbout Electronics, Box 2355, Oakland Airport CA 94614 |
Paul Tucker | HAL Communications Corp |
Mike Wise | Sphere, 791 S 500 W, Bountiful UT 84010 |
Bob Zaller | MITS |