| Information: | IBM’s first entry into word processing was the Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST). The product consisted of a Model 73 I/O (input/output) Selectric typewriter built into a small desk. A separate console containg the tape drive, relay logic, controls and dials was connected via an umbilical.
The cassettes contained 100 feet of tape holding about 25KB of data. Ketstrokes were recorded with a read / write head moved by solenoid and spring tension across the tape, one character per pass. The typewriter backspace key would back up the tape to overwrite the incorrect character. 7-bit code was used. |